Human remains found in shuttle debris

‘‘I can confirm human remains from the space shuttle Columbia have been found in the debris in Hemphill, about 180 miles from Dallas,’’ a spokesman of the local police said.

Body parts believed to be from the astronauts have been recovered near Hemphill in eastern Texas near the state’s border with Louisiana along with a helmet and uniform badges. The remains have been sent for DNA testing, a BBC report said. Along with the remains an intact mission patch, with names of the seven Columbia crew members was also discovered.

Katrina Self broke down after tripping across what appeared to be an electrical box lying beneath an oak tree in Pioneer Park. The piece of metal, said Self, a 25-year-old student, made immediate the deaths of the seven Columbia astronauts. ‘‘They probably touched that,’’ she said.

This quiet town of 31,000, about 130 miles from Houston, was one of the spots most heavily pelted by Columbia debris. No injuries were reported on the ground, but authorities in an area covering at least 500 square miles took up guard around blackened remnants, warning residents not to touch the debris out of fear that it might be toxic.

Some residents drove around with polaroids and video cameras to chronicle a moment of American history, even if a tragic one. By mid afternoon, Sabria Holland, 41, had already developed pictures she took with a disposable camera. One photograph showed a piece of round metal, possibly from a canister, and labelled ‘‘wastewater.’’

About 8 am, Nacogdoches residents reported first hearing a prolonged boom that puzzled them because of its force. Along the town’s quiet streets lay chunks of the shuttle, ranging in size from that of a pebble to 8 feet long. There were metal strips and bent pieces, scraps that resembled tar paper and others bearing marks of rivets. Authorities cordoned off wreckage and assigned guards.

In rural Dialville, Harvey J. Hanson, a 54-year old retired police officer, was watching for the passing shuttle through binoculars when he saw ‘‘a ball of fire coming at me.’’ Four or five balls of fire fell from the first, Hanson said, and were accompanied by a sound ‘‘like bacon frying in a skillet. … I knew something was wrong, because parts were falling off it. It looked like a mass of meteors coming in.

NASA officials hope to recover every scrap in an effort to determine what went wrong. Officials said they were investigating more than 1,000 fragments across the County.

News of the disaster had people glancing skyward nervously. At a high school baseball field in Plano, a Dallas suburb, Kendra Guy, 40, said she had been jittery about going for her son’s baseball tryout out of fear of more falling debris. At the sheriff’s office in Cherokee County in Texas, deputies tracked debris sightings by jabbing blue pins into a wall map. By evening, there were dozens. (LATWP)