The Nation - News from July 8, 1985

Managers of a farm fertilizer plant in Camanche, Iowa, said damage would exceed $1 million fro an explosion and fire that ripped apart four buildings, injured eight persons and threatened nearby residents with deadly fumes. Jerry Higdon, president of the Hawkeye Chemical Co., said the extent of the destruction was still being surveyed. “I heard a loud whistling so I went in to see what was going on,” said Claude Lease, one of the workers injured in the blast in the company’s anhydrous ammonia production area. “The next thing I knew, the building was coming in around me.” A firefighter was also injured.