VZCZCXRO7230
OO RUEHIK RUEHPOD RUEHYG
DE RUEHTI #0200/01 0771915
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 171915Z MAR 08
FM AMEMBASSY TIRANA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 6826
INFO RHMFISS/CDR USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE PRIORITY
RUEHZG/NATO EU COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA PRIORITY 0921
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUFNPKB/COMUSNAVEUR POLAD NAPLES IT PRIORITY
RUFNPKB/COMUSNAVEUR NAPLES IT PRIORITY
RUDKSR/EUCOM PLANS AND ANALYSES STUTTGART GE PRIORITY
RUEAWJA/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHDC PRIORITY
RHMCSUU/FBI WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 TIRANA 000200 
 
SIPDIS 
 
AIDAC, SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPT FOR EUR/SCE and USAID 
DEPT OF JUSTICE FOR OPDAT, ICITAP 
USAID FOR DCHA/OFDA, AID/W for OFDA Rob Andrew & Anne Convery 
GENEVA PLEASE PASS TO USAID AND RMA 
BUDAPEST PLEASE PASS TO USAID/RFMC 
 
E.O. 12958:N/A 
TAGS: MASS EAID NATO SENV AL
SUBJECT: ALBANIA:  FATAL EXPLOSION IN MUNITIONS DEPOT 
 
REF:  07 TIRANA 1064 
 
¶1. (U) At approximately 11:45 AM (local) March 15, an ammunition 
storage facility near the town of Gerdec (N41 deg 24 min 40 sec, E19 
deg 37 min 52 sec), between Tirana and Durres, caught fire.  Shortly 
after 12:00, a violent explosion destroyed homes in the immediate 
vicinity of the depot and caused damage to the airport terminal 4.6 
miles to the east and some window damage as far away as Tirana 11 
miles southeast.  The blast was heard in Skopje, Macedonia, over 100 
miles to the east.  A second explosion a few minutes later was 
followed by multiple small explosions over the next several hours. 
The cause of the incident remains unknown, but the Prosecutor 
General's office has opened an investigation. 
 
¶2. (U) The facility, one of over 44 sites used to store and/or 
dismantle ammunition in Albania, was used by the MOD to store a 
large quantity of 100 mm tank and 120 mm artillery rounds, according 
to a local EOD specialist.  This ammunition, like most of Albania's 
100,000 tons of surplus munitions, is over 40 years old and 
considered extremely unstable and dangerous.  The blasts scattered 
rounds in a two mile radius, and many of them are still live. 
 
¶3. (U) Media reports to date indicate that soma three hundred people 
were injured, fibTaej sere ki,l%d, and thirty are missing.  ThEQ 
Number kf $e!p(s sill probably increase since phaba ser% 2a0krpsQQ 
th`t people were working in tha `Ac)hQp9 /n a i5jhp)ons dismantling 
project.  Ma.y i.ju2a$s s%rd -i.kr, caused by flying glass a.`Q 
`%bba2  q b`ba6a8 `c a major highway two mile# Qq q.  Q$reral 
people with more serious injuriEs were flown to Italy and Greece for 
emergency c!re.  Others remain in Tirana's Military Hospital. 
 
¶4. (U) PM Berisha told the media that an Americancompany, Southern 
Ammunition Company, Inc. (SACIQ based in South Carolina, had 
recently renewed acontract with the MOD to dismantle ammunition and 
sell the scrap.  (Note:  Initial media reports mistakenly called the 
company "SAIC," an American company previously working on a 
USG-funded project that successfully and safely completed the 
destruction of 2,700 metric tons of large naval weapons in December. 
 See Reftel.) 
 
¶5. (SBU) SACI is a private company without any ties to the USG.  In 
fact, Post sought out the company when we heard they were working on 
demilitarization, but SACI avoided contact.  SACI president Patrick 
Henry III contacted ODC Chief following the explosion, when 
allegations that a U.S. company may have been responsible surfaced. 
Henry asserted that SACI was not involved in ammunition dismantling 
at the time and no SACI employees or subcontractors were present in 
the facility. 
 
¶6. (U) Within three hours of the first explosion, Embassy worked 
through WAE American physician Dr. Charles Linderman, who assisted 
at the military hospital, to provide needed medical supplies to the 
hospital's trauma center, paid for by USAID.  Several retired US 
Army Special Forces personnel in Albania to help train the Albanian 
Armed Forces volunteered to help secure the area and set up the 
on-site operations center.  American crisis management experts with 
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Navy, in town for 
crisis management training, are consulting closely with the Ministry 
of Interior Crisis Management Center.  At the request of the GOA, 
NAVEUR sent a team of EOD experts to assess the needs and 
possibilities for military to military EOD assistance; the team 
arrived March 17.  The FBI offered a crime scene investigation and a 
victim identification team; both were accepted by the Prosecutor's 
Office.  FBI is coordinating arrival.  We are consulting with the 
GOA to determine what additional assistance may be needed and will 
seek to provide it as requested.  Post expects to send a Disaster 
Declaration for OFDA assistance in the next days.  Embassy employees 
are organizing a cash and in-kind donations collection for the 
victims. 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
¶7. (U) Besides the tragic loss of life from this accident, the GOA 
is now faced with the humanitarian needs of the survivors.  The 
village of Gerdec and an adjoining village were literally flattened, 
making hundreds homeless.  Most of the villagers were farmers who 
 
TIRANA 00000200  002 OF 002 
 
 
will not be able to use their land until it has been cleared of 
unexploded ordnance by EOD teams.  Television scenes from the site 
some 36 hours after the explosion were eerily quiet, with dead farm 
animals next to live, abandoned ones in shell-infested fields by 
destroyed homes. 
 
WITHERS