Covid

MASKING SAVES LIVES

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

New Jerseyians Evacuated After F-16 Bomb Causes Fire

"Firefighters in New Jersey kept an anxious eye on the weather Wednesday as they battled a massive wildfire that had consumed more than 20 square miles of brush after a military jet dropped a flare on a bombing range.

"With the dry conditions, strong wind gusts quickly fanned the blaze through the Warren Grove Gunnery Range about 25 miles north of Atlantic City.

"No deaths or injuries had been attributed to the fire, but it forced the evacuation of about 2,500 homes along the border between Ocean and Burlington counties. Lt. Col. James Garcia, a spokesman for the New Jersey Air National Guard, said the fire was believed to have been started Tuesday afternoon with a flare dropped from an F-16 fighter jet.

"The same range had been involved in 2004 when a National Guard jet accidentally strafed an elementary school with large-caliber rounds during a training exercise.

Maybe these folks need to get some tips from the people in Vieques, Puerto Rico, who kicked the Navy off their island for similar, even more deadly, incidents:

"Vieques is best known internationally as the site of a series of protests against the US Navy's use of the island as a bombing range and weapons testing ground, which eventually led to the Navy's departure in 2003."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vieques,_Puerto_Rico

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