U.S. DEFENCE SECRETS LOST IN BIG FIRE

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28938, 4 July 1959, Page 13

U.S. DEFENCE SECRETS LOST IN BIG FIRE

Heavy Damage In Pentagon

(N.Z. Press Association "Copyright) (Rec. 11 pjn.) WASHINGTON, July 3. Defence Department officials estimated today that it might take years to replace statistical data lost in yesterday’s 30 million* dollar fire in the Pentagon. Salvage squads—closely watched by security police—today cleared away still smoking debris of the super-secret basement which was swept by flames for four hours. Studies on how to prevent a similar fire in the supposedly fire-proof Defence Department headquarters—the world’s largest office building—were under way. The blaze buckled concrete floors, burst water pipes, and destroyed tightly-guarded electronic' ‘ equipment *

. Three hundred firemen battled ithe fire, and 40 were overcome by the dense, acrid smoke given off by the burning of 7000 rolls of taped Air Force data, some of it stamped “secret.”

The blaze was confined to a small section—2o.ooo square feet —of the Pentagon’s total area, although smoke poured through an area equal to about four city blocks, v .

The Pentagon's staff of 29,000 were evacuated and sent home for the day. The cause of the fire is not known, but there was speculation that it might have been started by defective electrical wiring, the American Associateo Press reported. . Electric computing machines worth millions of dollars bore the brunt of the damage.

Following emergency ' regulations, Air Force men secured the area by locking up classified material as soon as the fire broke out

Security police were on hand while the blaze was being fought Most of the destroyed tape for the electronic brains machines contained information on personnel. There were a few rolls on military installations and operations. Although the tapes burned fiercely, the construction of the building kept the flames from spreading to upper storeys. Floor Buckled

The fire occurred in an underground area with no windows The heat buckled the stone and concrete "floor of the building’s giant main concourse. News stands, airline ticket offices, and shops there were hurriedly evacuated as firemen and work crews went to work on the concrete flooring with pneumatic drills to punch holes through and allow water to be played on the hidden flames. A .fireman said that one of the underground secret rooms was filled with metal containers. “Each one of those damned cans is full of fire,” he said. An Air Force official said a large number of secret tapes may have been damaged. The information they contained couia be decoded only with the aid ot

the machines, some of which were damaged. Pentagon officials, along with firemen, crouched in doorways tracing the spread of the fire on architectural floor plans marked “confidential” and "secret.”

There was no suggestion ot sabotage as the cause of the blaze.

The Pentagon said that the fire was “extinguished” for all practical purposes about five hours after it started.

A board of inquiry was set up immediately to investigate the cause and extent of damage. It was feared later that the big electronic data processing machines in the 20,000 square foot area hit by the fire were a total loss. One officer said that at least 7000 acetate magnetic tapes, all of them containing classified (secret) data, bad been lost. He said it would take from five to 10 years to replace them, if they could be replaced at alt Not far from the burning section was the Air Force "command post.” In that tightlyguarded room is the communications system through which, in event of attack, word would be flashed to Air Force units to go into action.