Titan Blows Up at Edwards : Rocket Falls During Move at Air Base

A Titan IV rocket booster exploded today at a testing laboratory on Edwards Air Force Base, injuring “several” base workers and sending a mushroom-shaped cloud of smoke thousands of feet into the air, officials said.

U.S. Air Force spokesman Staff Sgt. Thomas Morgan at Edwards said there were “several” casualties. Information was sketchy as to injuries. Hospitals throughout the region with burn units were put on alert to prepare for patients from the base.

The explosion, which occurred at 10:45 a.m. as the rocket was being moved at the base’s Astronautics Laboratory, forced about 1,200 employees to be evacuated from the facility, known as “The Rock.”

“I heard a small boom and the next thing I know they were telling us to get out,” said a mechanic, who asked not to be named. “The security police said, ‘Ladies and gentlemen get off The Rock. Now!’ ”

The mechanic said there was a massive tie-up of cars leaving the base, and at least five ambulances passed him, going toward the lab.

Lt. Col. Rick Oborn, a spokesman at the Pentagon, told the Associated Press that an initial report from the scene indicated that the blast was caused by the explosion of “one of the stages of a Titan missile booster.”

The spokesman said one of the rocket’s stages was being moved by crane and was somehow dislodged or dropped 100 feet, exploding upon impact.

“It appears to have been one of the solid fuel sections” of the booster, Oborn said.

The resulting plume was moving away from populated areas at an altitude that posed no immediate threat to residents, Morgan said.

“There was a big cloud of smoke. It was really bright,” said Roberta Martinson, clerk at a convenience store in Boron.

As the cloud drifted northward from the base, the California Highway Patrol closed a 30-mile stretch of State Highway 58 as a precaution. The road was opened about 40 minutes later.

Another mechanic who works in a nearby laboratory described the plume:

“It looked like a thunderhead, a big plume of smoke curling into the air. . . . Oh jeez, it was a half-mile in diameter. I have never seen anything like that.”

He added that workers were alerted to the emergency by an alarm system.

“I never heard any noise or explosion,” he said. “I was in another building. They came over the alert system saying, ‘We have a major emergency, all haz mat (hazardous material) and rescue teams go to your posts. This is not a drill. We have an emergency on hand.’ ”

Base officials contacted the California Highway Patrol, which closed the stretch of Highway 58. The road, which runs across the north side of the base, was reopened a short time later.

There were no evacuations of the area, 70 miles northeast of Los Angeles, said Capt. Chris Angelo of the Kern County Fire Department’s Boron station.

“It was high enough that we felt it wouldn’t come down,” Angelo said.

Titan IVs, built by Martin Marietta Corp., are considered the Air Force’s primary booster for launching its heavy payloads into space.