Wildfire damages Navy base on remote California island; live fire suspected
About 75 miles northwest of San Diego, beyond the view of much of the mainland, the rugged and remote Navy outpost of Island remains a mystery to most Californians.
For nine decades, San Clemente Island, the southernmost of the eight Channel Islands, has been owned by the Navy and is largely inaccessible to civilians. Throughout this time the volcanic isle’s sprawling shoreline and rolling hills have served as a crucial military training ground where U.S. troops detonate grenades and fire heavy artillery. It’s also the Navy’s last live-firing range for ship-to-shore bombardments.
So, in late July, few noticed when a catastrophic wildfire swept over more than 13,000 acres of the island outpost. Between July 24 and July 30, the blaze scorched more than a third of the island, damaging more than nine miles of high-voltage power lines, including more than 160 utility lines and a transformer, according to Navy documents.
NASA’s Worldview tool, which publishes daily satellite imagery and wildfire data, detected a possible wildfire on San Clemente Island around 5:30 a.m. July 24.
Under President Franklin Roosevelt, the Navy acquired San Clemente Island in 1934. Workers built barracks, roads and piers, setting the stage for the island to become the Navy’s premier weapons testing ground. The naval island is where the Navy developed the Higgins boat — the pivotal landing craft that ferried troops to the beaches of Normandy during the D-Day invasion.
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