State Awards $75,000 to Widow in ’77 SOS Accident

The State of California has paid $75,000 to an Illinois widow, closing the book on a gruesome accident that occurred eight years ago on a desolate stretch of Southern California desert.

Two men were killed while disposing of explosive waste from Space Ordnance Systems, a Santa Clarita Valley defense contractor. Robert D. Howard, 41, and Ronald R. Smith, 28, died of injuries they suffered in an explosion and fire, but only after stumbling for hours through the desert in an agonizing search for help.

The payment last week settled a lawsuit filed on behalf of Nina Howard and her son. The settlement was worked out last year but required legislative approval. In October, Gov. George Deukmejian signed a bill approving the settlement, and on Tuesday a deputy attorney general delivered the check to Nina Howard’s attorney.

Howard and Smith worked for J. S. Brower and Associates Inc. of Pomona, a small explosives manufacturing and disposal firm founded by Jerome S. Brower. Brower, 66, who now runs his business in Rialto under the name Broco Inc., is widely regarded as an explosives expert and sits on an advisory committee that is helping California’s job safety agency overhaul its explosives safety regulations.

Cited for Violations

The job safety agency, Cal-OSHA, cited the Brower firm for basic safety violations in connection with the fatal blast.

The accident occurred Oct. 20, 1977, at Ft. Irwin Army base in San Bernardino County. Testimony in the lawsuit and the Cal-OSHA investigation indicated that, during the 1960s and 1970s, Brower’s firm used Ft. Irwin almost routinely to dispose of explosive waste, even though the base did not have required state waste-disposal permits.

On the day of the accident, Howard and Smith arrived at Ft. Irwin before noon, each hauling a truckload of waste. Although the material had been collected from several firms, most of it came from SOS, including waste from production of military decoy flares and a shipment of high explosives that had been rejected by the government of Israel.

The men drove to a disposal trench miles from base headquarters and were unloading their cargo when a fireball engulfed them.

Lived for Several Days

Smith lived for several days despite burns over at least 85% of his body. In a 1981 deposition, Jerry Brower told how Smith, on his deathbed, described the way the fire swept through the trucks.

Smith “turned and put his hands in front of his face . . . and ran through the fire and jumped onto the ground,” Brower said. “They started to run, and then the truck blew. The second truck . . . blew. And it gutted Howard, blew him apart, actually.

“But he was still alive. And the two of them walked about three miles to the top of the hill.”

Howard could go no farther. National Guardsmen found him in a coma just after 9 p.m., his clothing gone except for a leather belt that had burned into the flesh of his midriff. He died before reaching the hospital.

Smith struggled on, and after nine miles reached an Army telephone shack. The phone worked on a code that Smith did not know, however, so he could not get through. Rescuers found him by the phone shack that night.

Fined $200

Cal-OSHA cited the Brower firm for failing to provide a blast shelter or protective clothing at the disposal site and for failing to provide for medical aid and transportation in case of trouble. The company was fined $200.

Testimony in the Howard lawsuit, filed in U. S. District Court in Los Angeles against the federal government, showed that the firm also ignored one of its own safety rules by failing to post a third man at a safe distance to act as a lookout.

But Brower, a decorated Korean War commando who lost the fingers on his left hand in an explosion in the 1960s, suggested that Howard or SOS might have been to blame.

In his deposition, Brower said that SOS in the past had packaged incompatible wastes together, although he admitted he did not know if such a mistake was made this time. He also said that Howard, who was a company vice president, sometimes was careless about safety rules and might have caused his own death by lighting a cigarette at the disposal pit.

Brower’s appeal of the Cal-OSHA citations was denied in 1980. By then, however, Cal-OSHA was the least of his worries.

Cloak-and-Dagger Escapades

Brower had become enmeshed in the cloak-and-dagger escapades of Edwin P. Wilson and Francis E. Terpil, ex-CIA agents who supplied weapons and explosives for Libyan strongman Moammar Kadafi and Uganda’s Idi Amin. Brower later admitted procuring 20 tons of explosives that were disguised as drilling mud and flown from Houston to a bomb-making factory in Libya on Oct. 2, 1977--18 days before Smith and Howard died. Brower, a blunt, rough-and-ready sort who uses the phrase “roger that” to express agreement, said he believed that the Libyan intrigue was a CIA operation.

Brower was indicted for perjury and federal munitions violations in 1980. He served four months in prison the following year after pleading guilty to a single count and agreeing to testify against Wilson.

Terpil remains at large but Wilson was tricked into returning to the U. S. and eventually received a series of lengthy prison terms. One conviction was for plotting, unsuccessfully, the revenge killings of several federal prosecutors and government witnesses, including Jerry Brower.

Sued the Government

Survivors of Smith and Howard were barred by worker’s compensation laws from bringing suits against the Brower firm. But Nina Howard--who moved to southern Illinois after the accident--sued the U. S. government, alleging its unsafe and illegal disposal operation at Ft. Irwin was responsible for her husband’s death.

At the time of the accident, Ft. Irwin was on loan from the Army to the California National Guard for use as a training site. Accordingly, the federal government filed a cross-claim against the state, asserting that it should pay any damages awarded the Howards. The state eventually agreed to put up the $75,000.

Brower said this week that he was unaware of the settlement and had no comment. An SOS official said the company knew nothing about the suit or the settlement.

‘A Good Settlement’

Nina Howard’s lawyer, Steve Odgers of Claremont, said that “for the extreme complexity of the case, it was a good settlement.”

In a telephone interview, Nina Howard, who now lives on a farm in southern Illinois, said: “I don’t think any amount of money that you’re going to get is going to take the place of the pain you’ve gone through.”

‘Still Feel Terrible’

She described her dead husband as “very cautious in everything he did. . . . I still feel terrible about . . . what they went through that day.”

Although the 1977 accident attracted little attention, SOS’ waste-disposal problems have received extensive publicity during the past year and a half.

Ft. Irwin was put off limits to the company and other defense contractors in 1980, and three years later SOS was barred by county fire and air quality officials from burning explosive waste at its two sites in Agua Dulce and east of Newhall.

By last spring, the company had a stockpile of more than 2,000 drums of explosive waste and had been cited by state and county health agencies for storing the material without required permits.

In April, SOS temporarily shut down the production of flares to avoid accumulating more waste. Since then, the company has shipped part of the waste to a South Carolina waste-disposal firm and has chemically neutralized the rest, paving the way for resumption of flare production.