Four helicopters head toward a plume of smoke from a fire located within the boundaries of Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake on July 30. (Lauren Jennings/Daily Independent)

Lauren Jennings and Jessica Weston (Daily Independent) • August 28, 2020

While more than 1 million acres of California has been scorched, one major fire hasn’t made headlines. 

In fact, outside of Kern County most haven’t heard of the 80,000-acre fire on one of the largest military bases in the world. Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake was struck by lightning on Aug. 19, sparking a fast-spreading wildfire — an all too familiar story for Californians right now. 

The fire, among the largest in the state over the last month, was reportedly out within a week. Fire suppression was done without the help of outside state agencies that have been fighting fires across Los Angeles, Monterey, Santa Cruz, Napa and Tulare counties. 

So, why is no one talking about this fire? It may have to do with an ingrained priority of protecting the mission at China Lake.

“When you work on base what you see and hear there, stays there,” Ridgecrest resident Meris Lueck said. “You don't share it in public for security reasons.”  

Lueck worked for nine years as a contractor on the base at China Lake. She said the military workplace culture strongly discourages or even prohibits talking about work away from the job site.

China Lake personnel repeatedly declined to report on how many acres have burned or the containment percentages. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), however, first estimated on Aug. 21 that the “North Range Fire” had burned 50,000-plus acres and was 0% contained. 

Because the BLM doesn’t manage the land on the base, officials were merely estimating the damage caused by the blaze.

The Daily Independent reached out to China Lake twice last week in hopes of confirming the numbers provided by the BLM. There was no response, despite smoke rolling into Kern County. 

Michelle Van Der Linden, a BLM spokeswoman for the California Desert District, did respond to the newspaper’s request for comment, stating in an email last week that BLM lands had not been impacted and referred questions to the Navy base.

Ridgecrest Police Department Chief Jed McLaughlin said that while the city has a good working relationship with the federal government and the various agencies on the base and police will respond if asked, but no one at China Lake contacted them about the fire.

Reports of a growing fire

China Lake officials posted on Facebook about the fire at 10:30 p.m. the day it was sparked, acknowledging a brushfire in a remote northern area of the base. 

Navy officials posted on social media the next day, giving no description on the size or containment. 

“Emergency personnel remain dedicated in their efforts to protect the safety and security of those (who) work and live at NAWS China Lake,” officials stated. 

By Friday, Navy officials still hadn’t responded to requests for details and posted on social media that fire crews from Naval Air Station Lemoore and Navy firefighters from across the state were helping local Navy personnel. 

BLM officials said on Monday that the fire was 80,000 acres and 25% contained. By Tuesday, BLM officials said the acreage remained at 80,000 and containment had grown to 95%. 

That afternoon, Margo Allen, the base’s public affairs officer, contacted the newspaper, promising an official count once the fire was out but declined to provide details beyond acknowledging 50,000 acres was an early estimate by the BLM.

Firefighters have stepped in to describe the struggles that come along with remote rural fires.

Desert fires can be challenging due to strong winds that are common in the surrounding deserts, according to Michael McClintock, a San Bernardino Fire Department spokesman. 

He explained that the monsoon season has the potential to bring lightning storms into the desert, which can cause multiple fires in a single area. If the storm brings strong and erratic winds following the thunderstorm, it can push the fire very quickly, McClintock said.

“High heat will keep fuels extremely dry and also make it challenging for our fire crews to work when it’s 100-plus,” he said. “Dry areas can have less fuels but make it more difficult for fire crews to work for extended periods of time.”  

McClintock speculated that due to the desert having little fuel sources the fire could have spread quickly, while the containment itself is dependent on the area.

NAWS China Lake falls under the Navy Region Southwest Command in San Diego, which also declined comment on the fire and redirected the newspaper back to Allen.

Up the chain, the Navy’s public affairs officer in Washington DC also declined to comment.

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office was likewise mum on the North Range Fire, forwarding an inquiry to Cal OES and CAL FIRE. The governor has added regular fire updates to his routine pandemic response reports throughout the week.

The North Range Fire was not listed on CAL FIRE’s incident website because it currently services 36 out of 58 of California’s counties. Deputy Chief Nick Schuler confirmed the fire was technically in San Bernardino County and therefore outside CAL FIRE’s jurisdiction.

McClintock said the San Bernardino Fire Department did not have any calls about a fire near the base and weren’t notified by the Navy.

As the fire grew, it was also noticeably absent from the National Interagency Fire Center website. 

On Wednesday morning, one week after the fire started, the BLM, again unofficially, announced that the fire had been 100% contained. 

The same day, Manuel Joseph Delarosa, a Navy liaison for California, confirmed that approximately 80,000 acres were charred, and no injuries were reported. He added that there was no critical damage to the base’s infrastructure.

Why so secret?

NAWS China Lake is a 1.1 million-acre installation that was founded during World War II as a remote place to test weapons in secrecy. Since then it has grown to be the Navy’s premier facility for research, development, acquisition, testing and evaluation of weapons and armaments. It is also the Navy’s single largest landholding, with 85% of the Navy’s land.

The facility has gone through name changes through the years, and several tenants -- the largest of which is Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division -- now share the federal space. By all accounts China Lake is considered essential to national security.

The base -- like any Department of Defense or military installation – is kept under lock and key.

So guarded are operations at China Lake that a Ridgecrest reporter was stopped from taking photos of the front gate from a vantage point “outside the fence line.”

“They have all different layers of classification and activities on that base that require different security clearances to access different programs and areas,” former NAWS Commander Mick Gleason said. “Managing classified material and managing activities that have varying levels of classification is difficult and people are very careful in managing that information.”

Much of the base is undeveloped wildland, and the Navy uses the undisturbed expanse for weapons testing. The fire occurred in an area which requires a security clearance to access, meaning it is not open to the public.

Sources familiar with the location say it was overgrown due to rains in recent years and that the fire would have had no trouble spreading given the overgrown conditions.

Locals know that unexplained fires in the night sky likely indicate weapons testing and not alien aircraft, but mystery still surrounds the facility.

Any suspicions the fire had another cause, such as being weapons-related, are inaccurate according to a background source who confirmed the official word that lightning caused the blaze. 

Once the fire was going, the Navy may have decided it was more cost-efficient to let the fire burn itself out, according to several sources. This is common practice in fighting wildland fires that don’t threaten structures or lives.

China Lake officials provided an update on social media on the fire on Friday at 11 a.m., two days after BLM announced the blaze was contained.

“Firefighting activities for a wildland fire in a remote northern area of the NAWS China Lake Installation were successful. The fire has been extinguished. No reports of injury to personnel or damage to critical assets were received. Thank you to all those who were able to answer the call and assist NAWS China Lake in response efforts.”