Explosion Destroys Bermite Building

An explosion Thursday afternoon destroyed an unoccupied chemical blending building at the Bermite explosives manufacturing plant in Saugus, causing an estimated $500,000 damage and touching off a small grass fire that county firefighters quickly extinguished.

No injuries were reported as a result of the explosion, which was the second major blast at Bermite’s 1,100-acre complex this year. In two other incidents, in May and June, two Bermite workers were badly burned on their hands when flammable material ignited in their work areas.

A Bermite spokesman said the wood and metal building destroyed in the blast had been used to mix the flammable powders the company presses into decoy flares for the U.S. military. The flares, which burn at extremely high temperatures, are ejected by fighter pilots to lure heat-seeking missiles away from their planes.

The Bermite spokesman said he did not know if the explosion, which occurred just after 4 p.m., would interrupt flare production.

Los Angeles County fire officials said four engines were sent to the Bermite plant at 22116 W. Soledad Canyon Road. Firefighters put out the blaze after it burned about an acre of grass.

The Bermite spokesman said he did not know what caused the explosion. He said that blending in the building is done by remote control and that he did not know if blending was under way when the building blew up.

Bermite, which has about 220 employees, is a division of Los Angeles-based Whittaker Corp.