Several plants have exploded over the years but none compare to the “fire of the century” in Beavercreek.

The Lammers Barrel Factory fire rocked the area and 40 years after the massive blaze, it's still causing plenty of problems.

One-hundred-thousand gallons of liquid burned at the corner of Grange Hall and Patterson road for several days. Jim Griest remembers the blast. "The flames were high," Griest said. "It was quite an explosion."

"The flames were high," Griest said. "It was quite an explosion."

Griest lives just across the road from the former site that's still making a mess.

Scott Glum, from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, said, "There's significant soil contamination and a plume of water contamination."

The U.S. EPA and Ohio EPA first found problems in the mid-1980s. They started testing nearby wells and found many were unfit to drink.

Traces of 70 contaminants were found in one well.

Griest's and many other homes have been hooked up to the public water supply. But some still aren't.

Griest said, "I don't know what long term effect that will have if any."

Glum says experts test those wells constantly and believe they are safe to drink. He believes regulations, added since the fire of 1969, should help people in West Carrollton from having to deal with the same problems their Beavercreek neighbors did 40 years ago.

Glum said, "There's a lot of laws to make sure a site dealt with properly and the environmental contamination addressed."

The EPA just completed a final study of the Beavercreek site. The agency has to develop a clean up plan; Glum hopes that work will begin in the next year.

It'll be paid for a by a group of former owners of the now toxic site.