Safety probe expected at Warren Grove range

STAFFORD TOWNSHIP, N.J. - A military report that could be issued today will likely blame last month's Pinelands fire on a practice flare fired by an F-16 fighter pilot near the Warren Grove Gunnery Range, according to U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg.

Lautenberg, who would like to see the range shut down, said the military's next move will be to convene a Safety Investigations Board, which will study procedures used at Warren Grove and make recommendations for improvement.

Convening a safety board investigation "indicates that the Guard has serious concerns about the gunnery range and the cause of the fire," Lautenberg said.

The May 15 fire, which started during an Air National Guard practice mission, scorched 17,250 acres of New Jersey's Pinelands. It destroyed five houses, significantly damaged 13, and routed about 6,000 people from their homes in sections of Ocean and Burlington Counties for more than two days.

The report, expected as soon as today, will be issued by an Air Force Accident Investigation Board. Lautenberg said he wants to know the "steps the Guard will take to improve conditions at the range and its relationship with local residents." The investigation to determine those steps likely will take at least several more weeks.

"This fire started because the National Guard did not follow proper safety procedures - procedures I called for nearly three years ago. New Jerseyans expect their military to act more safely and more carefully," Lautenberg said last month when he summoned the Air National Guard's three top generals to his Washington office for a closed-door meeting.

The fire in May wasn't the first mishap caused by practice missions originating out of the Warren Grove range.

An F-16 Vulcan cannon was more than three miles off target in November 2004 when it blasted 1.5-inch steel training rounds into the roof of the Little Egg Harbor Township Intermediate School. The school was closed that day, and nobody was injured.

In 2002, a pilot ejected from an F-16 just before it crashed into the woods near the Garden State Parkway, sending large pieces of debris onto the busy highway. Again, no one was hurt.

In 1999, a dummy bomb was dumped a mile off target from the range, igniting an inferno that burned 12,000 acres of the Pinelands.

And in 1997, the pilots of F-16s from the range escaped injury by ejecting from their aircrafts just before the planes collided over the ocean near the north end of Brigantine. Pilot error was found to be the cause of the collision. Again, no civilians were injured.

Maj. Gen. Glenn Rieth, commander of the New Jersey Air National Guard, said a safety investigation would take place if the accident report warranted one.

Rieth called the mission of the gunnery range "extremely important" in training military personnel.

"There really is nowhere else where this kind of practice mission so vital to our military operations can take place on the East Coast," Rieth said.

Lt. Col. James Garcia of the New Jersey National Guard yesterday declined comment on whether the accident report would be released today and what it would indicate. He would not confirm whether a safety investigation board would be convened, as Lautenberg had indicated.

When the Warren Grove Range was created after World War II, it was in a largely remote, unpopulated section of the state on the southern fringes of Burlington and Ocean Counties. Some 60 years later, the range is partially situated in one of the fastest-growing counties in America's most crowded state. More than 50,000 people live within 10 miles of the range.