Depot Ceremony to honor those who died in 1944 explosion

Umatilla Chemical Depot will honor the six workers who died in a 1944 igloo explosion on Monday, March 21, the 67th anniversary of the event.

The ceremony will begin at 10 a.m. in Bldg. 54 and end at the site of the explosion. Family members of those who died and the public are invited.

The 1944 accident was the only fatal munitions handling accident in the depot’s 70- year history. The depot received its first conventional munitions in October, 1941 on the eve of World War II, and stored conventional ammunition throughout World War II, the Korean War, Vietnam and the Gulf War. The depot began its current mission of chemical weapons storage in the early 1960s and continues that tradition today.

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