The facility, one of the largest in the world at the time, was destroyed along with more than 300 surrounding buildings, forcing the evacuation and reconstruction of Sayreville, South Amboy, and Laurence Harbor (Old Bridge).

[4] The initial Morgan explosion, according to the US Army Corps of Engineers, was in Building 6-1-1, at the present-day residential block bounded by Dusko, Gillen and Rota Drives.

Some of the strongest individual blasts, from exploding storehouses or railcars of ammunition, broke windows as far away as Manhattan and Asbury Park, more than 20 miles (32 km) distant.

[12] Many victims disintegrated in the explosions and fires, and the unidentified remains of 14 to 18 workers were buried in a mass grave off Ernston Road in what is now Old Bridge Township.

[5] The inscription reads: "In memory of the unidentified dead who gave their lives while in the service of the United States of America, at the Morgan Shell Loading Plant in the explosion of October 4–5, 1918.

[2] Previously, in 1994 and again in 1997, the discovery of shells near Sayreville's Dwight D. Eisenhower Elementary School spurred cleanup operations by the US Army Corps of Engineers, which collected and disposed of a combined total of 5,080 pieces of ordnance.