DASA 2019-2 242 their life. It was a place where nothing had happened since the Romans and a)l of a sudden everything seemed to happen. Visitors came in from nearby villages. Even though there were only 300 people, approximately, living there, the Spanish ended up monitoring 1,800 people because it became quite a tourist attraction. FREMONT-SMITH: With no restrictions on local travel? LANGHAM: Not except right in certain areas where we posted the Civil Guard and told the Civil Guard not to enter. A gentleman who owned the tamato patch on the edge of the village was standing in the door of his home. The blast from the explosion blew him down onto his living room floor, tore one door off tLe hinge and knocked out one of his windows. That was the closest we came to having « Spanish casualty. Seven Americans had already died and eight more were killed flying in supplies and equipment, So, 15 Americans lost their lives. Not a single Spanish life waa lost. EISENBUD: How soon after the event was it known to the local residents that their crops would be bought? LANGHAM: Prubabiy 24 to 48 hours. I mean, the first thing they knew of it was when they were restricted from going into their fields. EISENBUD: crops. They were sure they would get a gcod price for their LANGHAM: A Frenchman claimed he got a radiation bura on his knec from looking into the hole. He got down on one knee, lonked into the crater and then his knee got sore after that and he said he had a@ radiation burn on his knee. Of course, this is alpha activity and it got on his pants but he could not have received a radiation burn. Later the highly contaminated area was delineated with red flags to warn people, They hardly knew what radioactivity was, you see. Tousa red flag means danger, "Don't enter,’ but to them it means much more danger than it means to us, I guess. FREMONT-SMITH: "Very dangerous. Don't enter at all." LANGHAM: Yes, or, “Run the other way. '' I don't know, except that the red flag created enough commotion and our psychology friends can explain this, I think.