The July 10, 1926 explosion at Picatinny Arsenal is one of Morris County New Jersey’s worst disasters.
Shortly after 5pm on Saturday July 10, 1926, a lightning strike ignited a fire at one of the buildings holding the 2.5 million pounds of TNT stored at Picatinny Arsenal; the resulting detonation released an amount of energy equivalent to 1/10th the blast of the first atomic bomb.
Craters measuring up to twenty-five feet deep marked the sites where munitions left over from World War I were stored; enough to supply the United States military for one additional year of fighting.
Among the nineteen dead were one Army officer, three Navy officers, one Marine Corps officer, one Navy enlisted man, 11 enlisted Marines, and two civilian women. Included in the military casualties were several men who rushed to extinguish the initial fire and were caught in the first blast. Others who died included those living in civilian housing nearby; had the disaster occurred on a workday, hundreds more would have likely perished.
The force of the explosions obliterated everything within a half-mile of the lightning strike, and every building on the base was either demolished or badly damaged. Property damage on the base alone exceeded $1.2 million (over $22million in 2025 dollars). Hundreds of individuals from nearby towns were left homeless, with many seeking shelter in nearby Morristown.
Survivors initially sought shelter at the Armory (the former Morristown Library and Lyceum) where friends and relatives searched for victims. By July 12th, the United States Hotel became the headquarters for coordinating disaster relief work and was one of the primary shelters for the injured and displaced.
The Red Cross took charge of relief efforts and found beds for additional refugees in nearby churches, the American Legion Hall, and Market Street Mission. Local women stepped in to assist physicians in caring for the injured. Newspaper coverage of the day credited the generosity and selflessness of Morristown residents who volunteered their time, money, and homes to aid those impacted by the disaster.
Extinguishing the fires took days, with debris and live rounds creating their own hazards. Despite the devastation, community members and base personnel were overwhelmingly in favor of rebuilding the facility. The 1926 Picatinny disaster, although tragic, led to important safety reforms concerning the proper storage of munitions, lessons that continue to safeguard facilities across the nation today.
