“Blast Devastates Heart of Roseburg” read the banner headline in The Oregon Statesman on Aug. 8, 1959, with more than half of its front page coverage dedicated to a deadly explosion more than 130 miles south of Salem.
The newspaper published Associated Press stories reporting how a truck with 6 1/2 tons of explosives aboard caught fire from a burning building and blew up, destroying a six-block area and killing at least 11 people.
The number of deceased would climb to 14; more than 120 others were injured in a city of 12,200 — about half the size Roseburg is today. Firefighters and police officers were among the dead, including firefighters who responded to the initial report of a blaze at the building supply company where the fire started.
The tragedy became known as “The Roseburg Blast” or simply “The Blast.”
It reportedly was heard as far away as Eugene and broke windows up to seven miles away.
Salem’s afternoon paper, the Capital Journal, reported in one of its headlines how the blast left a crater 20 feet deep and 50 feet wide.
Subsequent reports estimated 300 businesses in a 30-block disaster area sustained some damage from the explosion.
Officials estimated damages between $10 million and $12 million.
An early morning fire at Gerretsen Building Supply Company on Pine Street was determined to be the cause, spreading to a parked truck loaded with two tons of dynamite and more than four tons of ammonium nitrate.
The truck driver had stopped to spend the night at the nearby Umpqua Hotel. Most of the nearby residents were asleep at the time of the explosion.
The Blast attracted widespread national attention and led to stricter explosives-transport safety regulations and enforcement by the Interstate Commerce Commission.
Register-Guard photographer Chris Pietsch contributed to this report.
Capi Lynn is a senior reporter for the Statesman Journal. Send comments, questions and tips to her at clynn@statesmanjournal.com, and follow her work on Twitter @CapiLynn and Facebook @CapiLynnSJ.
This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: Looking back at “The Blast” that devastated the heart of Roseburg