Jo’s Cafe

Hubby was in the middle of this mess yesterday …

Fire destroys vehicles, 20 acres 

A Fort Benning [Georgia] range fire burned close to 20 acres in the Harmony Church area and destroyed at least three vehicles, said spokeswoman Monica Manganaro.

The blaze began about 2:45 p.m. Tuesday and burned steadily for approximately two hours before firefighters were able to extinguish the flames. It appeared to have been started by blank rounds or grenade simulators during training in the area, Manganaro said.

“This was not a controlled burn, like we had yesterday,” she said Wednesday.

In addition to the three vehicles that were destroyed, eight others were damaged.

He was sending me pictures as it was going on.  What the story doesn’t say is that as soon as the CSM from the Battalion got there, the Forestry Service guy starting saying it wasn’t their fault; that there was “pyro” being used on that range.  Well, the “range” that they were one wasn’t using any high explosive ammo, its a training range for the upcoming Expert Infantry Badge Course.  There are stations each soldier goes to in order to get “gos” toward earning their EIB.  There is no live ammunition used.  Fortunately, there were several high ranking soliders that witnessed the Forestry Service “starting the fires” that got out of control.  So the statement about it not being a controlled burn in the story is a out and out lie.  

The cadre got a slim-jim and started pushing cars out of the way of the fire and that is why there were only three that were totalled.  There was several vehicles with damage, but ours was safe fortunately.

There is a fire burn ban right now in Georgia — why were they doing controlled burns then?