Nosler Bullets Blew Up !!

[billt]

http://twitpic.com/1tdjxd

http://kohd.com/news/local/176294

UPDATE: 4:40 PM (VIDEO AND PICTURES) http://kohd.com/news/local/176294

Explosions and a fire at the Nosler bullet manufacturer in Bend on Columbia Street, about two fifteen this afternoon. Streets around the building which is just west of the Mount Bachelor bus parking area off of Columbia street were closed as firefighters rushed to the scene. There is major structural damage, an entire corner of building destroyed by at least one explosion. Initial reports indicate employees saw a flash in the ballistics tunnel and began evacuating. All one hundred people were able to get safely out of the building, one treated for smoke inhalation.



Off duty fire fighters were called in, a total of about fifty fire personell were on scene along with Bend Police blocking traffic. No cause has been released for what started the fire.

UPDATE: 100 employees have been safely evacuated from the building. No injuries have been reported, although one person is being treated for smoke inhalation.

Employees reported seeing a "flash" just before the fire broke out.





Bend Fire and Police Departments are on scene of a structure fire at Nosler Bullets at SW Columbia & Simpson. Drivers are urged to avoid the area - emergency crews have closed roads in the area. Witnesses report an explosion prior to the fire. KOHD News and KOHD.com will continue to follow this story and will post updates as they become available. 
 
 

[m25operator]

Big fan of Nosler, I hope they get back to regular biz soon, Prayers to follow.

[billt]

http://www.ktvz.com/news/23772491/detail.html

BEND, Ore. -- An explosion and fire rocked a portion of the Nosler Inc. bullet manufacturing plant in southwest Bend Wednesday afternoon, prompting evacuation and closure of streets in the area; despite a blast felt for several blocks, all 100 workers were accounted for.

The fire was reported initially as a smoke report shortly after 2 p.m. at the facility at 107 SW Columbia St., which was evacuated. By 2:15 p.m., there were reports that an explosion had destroyed part of the building. But by 3 p.m., reports from the scene were that all workers on scene at the time of the blast had been accounted for.

A company spokesman said he was told that around 2 p.m., work was under way in the ballistics tunnel, a testing area for ammunition, when there was a flash, followed by the quick evacuation, smoke, and moments later by a massive explosion.

Fire crews arrived at the 80,000-square-foot, 22-year-old facility to find extensive damage to the southeast corner of the building and brownish-yellow smoke pouring from the damaged area, said Fire Inspector Jeff Bond.

A Bend Fire special rescue operations team combed the wreckage to be sure all were accounted for, while city building officials helped evaluate the damage and hazards for crews performing mop-up and overhaul operations.

Bond said an extensive investigation will be conducted by Bend Fire, law enforcement agencies and - because of the bullets manufactured there - the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

Bond also said the quick evacuation by workers was "instrumental in a safe and effective exit from the structure."

"The company instituted and practiced building evacuations over the years, and this policy paid off today," Bond said in a news release.

A damage figure still was being compiled, for a facility valued at $2.8 million for the structure and $10 million worth of contents, but Bond said it clearly was "pretty extensive."

Columbia Street remained shut into the evening hours. Firefighters asked the public to avoid the area for their safety and that of emergency workers.

Bend Fire did a personnel callback to ensure adequate staffing and called in Redmond and Sunriver firefighters for mutual aid coverage of the North and South stations.

About 100 people work in the Nosler facility, a company founded in the late 1940s by John Nosler. Witnesses said there was a flash in the ballistics-testing tunnel area of the facility, and everybody apparently got out before the blast hit.

One nearby resident described the blast as like "feeling a bomb inside your house." After her house shook violently, she looked out to see a huge plume of orange smoke that she couldn't see through.

Barb Gonzalez at first thought it was an earthquake, when her house was jolted by the blast. "This one felt like a 5.5 (magnitude) jolt", said the survivor of the 1994 Northridge quake. Her second thought was an explosion.

Bella Blackney recounted: "All of a sudden the house shakes, and the glass is rumbling in all the windows, visibly - all the glass shook. Really intense. For a second I thought a bomb went off."

Bend Fire called in a special operations team to go through the rubble, which apparently buried at least one evacuated worker's car in debris.

People several blocks away said the explosion rattled their office windows.

[ericire12]

I blame the gun show loophole

[TAB]

having relatives ( as well as owning some land) in bend, that is really going to hurt the local econ.  The housing crash has screwed that town very badly.  they have something like 25% unemployment.

[Sponsor]

[billt]

having relatives ( as well as owning some land) in bend, that is really going to hurt the local econ.  The housing crash has screwed that town very badly.  they have something like 25% unemployment.

I had an aunt and uncle from there as well. When I was a kid, (12 years old), me and a friend rode bicycles up, then down Pilot Butte. It was a lot more fun going down! My 2 cousins that grew up there moved to Portland when they got older. No work in Bend.  Bill T.

[TAB]

its a resort town, 95% of the people there are from CA,  most cashed out thier houses to buy up there.  Great town to live in.  hell up until the start of 09 it was a great place to be in constuction.  Every week I got a call from my uncle who is a delevoper in that area, begging me to come up there and work.  Skilled labor was in short supply.

[billt]

its a resort town, 95% of the people there are from CA,  most cashed out thier houses to buy up there.

It's exactly the same in Lake Havasu City and Prescott here in Arizona. The problem in Lake Havasu is they took over the town politically and started governing with that "California mentality". The place doesn't have sewers for over half the town, but they have a $30,000,000.00, ($30 MILLION), jail and police station, along with a "Fire Training Academy", and a water park right on the lake that no one uses. Just like Cali they know how to make money disappear, and have the fiscal responsibility of a 12 year old.   Bill T.

[Solus]

Have to wonder what the cause was.

From the reports of a flash in the ballistics tunnel shouldn't cause this type of explosion if bullet testing was in progress.

It said the flash occurred while work was being done in the tunnel.  Perhaps some construction was under way.  I sure hope they didn't have a large quantity of power stored outside the powder magazine and in the tunnel?

The flash sounds like it might have been some type of vapor or gas explosion?  Perhaps something unrelated to ammunition manufacture and testing that ignited things.  Don't know if a large quantity of smokeless will explode.  Guess that depends on how contained and how much there was.

[tombogan03884]

Smokeless can't explode.