Little hope for missing workers

Thursday, Jan. 8, 1998 | 10:06 a.m.

LOCKWOOD -- Gustavo Alcala lies in a hospital bed mourning for four fellow employees who remain missing after massive blasts Wednesday morning that leveled an explosives manufacturing plant about 11 miles east of Sparks.

"We were like family," Alcala said. "I tried to help the others."

Alcala managed to escape by climbing through a small hole in the rubble.

Because of the force of the explosion, there's little hope for Alcala's colleagues. Three searches Wednesday failed to turn up any trace of the missing workers. Searchers continued their efforts today.

Twelve employees were known to have been at work at the Sierra Chemical Co. in Lockwood when two explosions decimated the plant. Six workers were taken to Reno hospitals and three remain hospitalized in stable or satisfactory condition.

Alcala, 29, of Reno, suffered head injuries and face and eye burns. He is listed in stable condition at Northern Nevada Medical Center.

Listed in satisfactory condition at Washoe Medical Center are Benigno Orozco, 24, of Reno, and Eduardo Cruz, 33, of Sun Valley. Both suffered burns and facial injuries.

Two workers were treated at the scene for minor injuries but not hospitalized.

It may be some time before the cause of the blast is learned. Investigators, however, have traced the blast's origin to a small storage shed for chemicals. No one was in the shed at the time, company officials said.

Washoe County Sheriff Dick Kirkland said officials of the Sierra Chemical Co. could not explain what set off the explosion in the shed. Kirkland said the concussion touched off a bigger explosion in an adjoining building, where workers were mixing chemicals for TNT.

The explosion was felt as far away as 90 miles. The seismology lab at the University of Nevada, Reno said the blast occurred at 7:54 a.m. and measured just under 2.0 on the Richter Scale. Debris is spread over an area of 2,000 square yards.

"It was pretty massive," Kirkland said. "Everything is in a million little bits."

Barbara Bradley, who lives nearby at Rainbow Bend, said, "I didn't know if somebody dropped a bomb ... if there was a war. I was real scared."

Deborah Thomas, who also lives at Rainbow Bend across the Truckee River from the plant, said she thought it was a sonic boom. "It rattled my home and my front door was thrown open."

After the two explosions, a dark cloud that measured 20 miles long and five miles wide at one point, hung over the area. But the 15 mph winds helped disperse the cloud. And environmental officials said there was no health threat.

Lockwood is a small community along Interstate 80 about 10 miles east of Sparks. The plant was located in a canyon, which is isolated from homes and other businesses. And many of the people who live on the other side of the hill never knew that the plant, which makes explosives for the mining industry, even existed.

The plant employs about 100 workers and many of them are from Guanajuato, located in the middle of Mexico.

Storey County Deputy Sheriff Bill Petty was one of the first on the scene. He said he saw "six survivors staggering and crawling out of the area."

Leonard Ushman, 43, of Sparks, said he picked up three of the men and drove them to the Northern Nevada Medical Center in Sparks. He couldn't understand them since they all spoke Spanish but he said they were "hollering and screaming." Blood was running out of the ear of one of the injured, he said.

More than 100 emergency vehicles responded. At first, fire crews tried to battle the flames. But it was learned that explosives were scattered throughout the area and might be ignited. The crews were withdrawn and the fire was permitted to burn itself out.

Emergency crews made three brief visits to the site in hopes of finding survivors. But there was no trace of anyone.

"We haven't located any remains that could be identified as human," Kirkland said.

F. Lynn Kinder, a vice president of Sierra Chemical, told authorities he did not know what could have touched off the explosion in the unoccupied building.

Kirkland said there "does not appear to be any foul play" and it looks like an accident. But Deputy District Attorney David Clifton said this would be treated as a "possible crime scene" until there is evidence there was no criminal conduct or criminal negligence.

The plant opened in 1972 and had a good safety record. The state Division of Industrial Relations, which inspects highly hazardous businesses, said it had not been issued any violations in the past. Its last inspection was in 1996. But Washoe County had not inspected the facility in the last five years, even though there is a policy requiring four checks a year.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms issued a permit for the making of the explosives in 1971. But the last federal inspection was in 1995.

Since the last state inspection in 1996, Sierra Chemical had built a new "mixing room" where the chemicals are combined to make the TNT.

Kirkland said these chemicals are mixed in large vats. The large mushroom dark cloud, resulting from the explosion, caused an immediate concern about contamination. Recesses in schools in Washoe and Storey counties were cancelled so the children could be kept inside.

The injured workers, when they arrived at the Northern Nevada Medical Center and Washoe Medical Center in Reno, were taken into decontamination tents and washed to remove any possible hazardous material on them. Hospital workers said dirt was caked on the faces of some of the men.

Sierra Chemical also operates chemical plants in Battle Mountain and Sparks.