Biohazard and Pathogen Disinfection in Damascus, AR

Damascus is an incorporated town that straddles the county line between Van Buren County and Faulkner County in central Arkansas, sitting on U.S. Highway 65 on a plateau in the Ozark foothills between Pine Mountain Creek and Batesville Creek.

The area's first settler is described in local histories as William Hutto, who arrived in 1874, built a one-room pine cabin, and began clearing farmland; the young community was at first called Hutto after his family.

When residents applied for a post office in 1887, they renamed the settlement Damascus, after the Syrian city prominently mentioned in the Bible.

The town's first school began in 1881 with students meeting outdoors in summer, and in 1911 Damascus joined an early school-consolidation experiment that grew into the South Side School District, which still serves the town's students today.

The Damascus Gymnasium, built in 1933 just north of the county line on Highway 285, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

A Civilian Conservation Corps camp operated at Damascus in the 1930s, and the Damascus CCC Camp Historic District preserves its rustic stonework from the Depression era.

Damascus did not incorporate until July 15, 1966.

The town is best known for its proximity to Titan II Launch Complex 374-7, a nuclear missile site a few miles north of town that became operational on December 18, 1963.

On September 18-19, 1980, a dropped wrench socket punctured a Titan II missile's fuel tank inside the silo, and the leaking fuel exploded about eight and a half hours later, killing one Air Force specialist and injuring twenty-one other personnel.

The missile's re-entry vehicle containing a nuclear warhead was ejected and recovered intact, and there was no radioactive contamination, making the Damascus accident one of the most serious 'Broken Arrow' incidents in American history.