By A recent forest fire out at Rodriguez Range has some local Pocheon city officials pissed off:
An Apache helicopter fires a rocket at the Korea Training Center.
A 20-hour wildfire at Rodriguez Range Monday and Tuesday has Pocheon city officials seeing red.
The fire, which a U.S. Army spokeswoman said was started Monday afternoon by rocket fire from an Apache helicopter, scorched about 7 ½ acres of the training area before firefighters from Pocheon, the Korean Office of Forestry and U.S. Army Garrison Casey could put it out Tuesday morning.
Hilly terrain, access to the training area and a frozen reservoir all contributed to the amount of time it took to get the fire under control, said a Pocheon city official. But the blaze could have been subdued more quickly if it weren’t for what, he said, is a lack of cooperation from the U.S. military.
The officials said firefighters from nearby Camp Casey frequently show up “late” to fires and requests for a helicopter to help fight the fire were ignored.
U.S. Army Garrison Casey spokeswoman Margaret Banish-Donaldson denied the accusations, saying Casey firefighters were on the scene within minutes and a Black Hawk helicopter armed with “Bambi” buckets helped Forestry helicopters fight the fires.
But the official said there is a pattern of neglect when it comes to helping fight fires in the area, and he has records to prove it — though he declined to immediately make them available to Stars and Stripes.
“If this bad cycle repeats itself again,” the official said, “the city is prepared to share how the U.S. military neglects its job in putting out their fires with the public.
“We are so upset and angry. Why it always is us to put out a fire while the U.S. troops are the ones to start them on their own firing range? What they do is show up later after we’ve fought hard to control the fire.” [Stars & Stripes]
When I used to go and do Bradley gunnery out at Rodriguez Range it was pretty much a given a fire would start at some time and that is why we always had a fire fighting team from within the unit always on stand by composed of about six soldiers. If the fire was too big for them to put out then the fire department would be called. I can only remember one time that happening and they were there quickly to put out the fire. That is my only experience dealing with the fire department at Rodriguez Range and we had no issues.
9:45 am on January 21st, 2009 1
This complaint is a bunch of BS. The locals around the area have been complaining for years about the range complex and have been using every excuse in the book to stir the pot. I doubt a gunnery density goes by where there isn't at least one fire there, and that is largely due to the fact that the Koreans won't allow the U.S. Army to conduct controlled burns to reduce the fire threat. So they prefer the routine blaze that often gets out of control.
12:36 pm on January 21st, 2009 2
There is also US DPW fire fighting company permanently stationed on site now to provide immediate response. Marcus is right. It's all political BS. Too bad S&S can't do a little research and provide the complete truth on stories like this. Guess they've decided to do as the locals do and apply ROK journalism standards to USFK stories. Now the ROK news agencies will quote the S&S article as gospel and stir things up even more.
1:15 pm on January 21st, 2009 3
Thanks guys for the background info. I'm not surprised in the least by the politics involved around this issue.
7:33 pm on January 21st, 2009 4
I would like to add one more thing to all the good points already made. This is not a US range! This range belongs to the Korean military. Two things that are BS about this story are the fires happened on the range and not near the town and there is a fire department attachment at the range just for this problem. We have been told by the Korean Military to avoid the Range complex unless your there to fire due to the fact that they are trying to expand the facility and don't want the locals to think that it has anything to do with the US ARMY.
12:34 am on January 22nd, 2009 5
KORMATT,
I don't know who holds the deed for the real estate, but what is absolutely certain is that the range complex is U.S.-exclusive use only. The ROK military cannot use any of the ranges there without permission from the U.S. military. Also, there is no "expansion" going on, only construction centered around upgrading existing range infrastructure.