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At approximately 1600 hours, a propane tank at a construction site located at 15136 Rutan Lane in Charlotte, NC exploded. The resulting fire fully engulfed a pickup truck containing a Troxler moisture density gauge. NC Radiation Protection was informed at 1703 hours by NC Emergency Management of the incident and has dispatched an Inspector to the scene to assist Hazmat. The initial radiation readings provided by Hazmat show preliminary readings of .3 mr/hr (not sure whether this is contact or near the gauge).

• * * UPDATE PROVIDED BY LEE COX TO JEFF ROTTON AT 2205 ON 04/03/07 * * *

The North Carolina Radiation Protection Inspector is onsite at the scene of the explosion. The truck was damaged beyond repair and the Inspector was able to locate both gauge sources with survey instruments. The Troxler gauge is a model 3440 with a 40 millicurie Am-241:Be source and a 8 millicurie Cs-137 source. Both sources were located in the bed of the truck. The Am-241 source was outside the gauge housing and the Cs-137 source was still attached to the source handle/rod. Neither source was breached. The Inspector was able to use various retrieval instruments to pickup both sources and place them into a temporary transportation package created on the scene and use available material for shielding and packaging to secure the sources. The temporary transportation package was secured in the bed of a truck with a cab over the truck bed. Radiation readings in the cab of the truck and on the sides of the truck bed were background. Radiation readings at a distance of 1 meter from the package was < 2 mR/hr. The radiation reading on contact was 15 mR/hr. The truck with the damaged Troxler gauge was escorted by the NC Radiation Protection Inspector to the South Carolina licensee's site located at 3575 Center Circle, Fort Mill, SC 29715, South Carolina License # -777. The gauge manufacturer, Troxler, was contacted and will be sending a DOT approved transportation container so that the licensee can return the damaged gauge to the manufacturer. NRC Region 1 (Kinneman) and the State of South Carolina were notified by the North Carolina Radiation Protection Office. Notified R1DO (Gray) and FSME EO (Rathbun)