Engineer: Tank Found In Pit At Middle School

Keystone Two-Eight · #1 (**permalink**) May 18th, 2008, 02:26 PM

Engineer: Tank Found In Pit At Middle School ORLANDO, Fla. -- Residents near a local middle school said they find it hard to believe that no one knew about the World War II bombing range the school was built on.

The Army Corps of Engineers detonated 400 pounds of explosives found on the school property on Saturday.

"We were able to explode and render safe 49 23-pound bombs," Mike Fulford of the Army Corps Of Engineers said.

Superintendent Ron Blocker will be at Odyssey Middle School on Monday to assure students and parents that the school is safe.

The engineers who wrote the site survey fore the Orange County School District in 1999 before OMS was built assured the district that no bombs had been dropped on or fired from the property.

The engineers also did not mention what has just been learned about pits being dug on the property with bombs left inside them.

"A World War II tank is physically located in one of these pits," one engineer said in reference to the size of the pits.

"The best of the experts tell us that it is safe," Sen. Bill Nelson said.

Officials said that because the explosives are buried six feet or more underground, it is not a danger.

Residents are not buying the claims that no one knew the history of the school property.

"This was 1940. It's not like it was 50 centuries ago. It would be recorded. This is the government and the U.S. military and there is no reason why this shouldn't be recorded in public record," one Vista Lakes resident said.

"I just want to move. I don't want to be here anymore," homeowner Arisleyda Bonetti said.

Universal Engineering Services painted a rosy picture of the now-school property when it was surveyed in August of 1999: "No practice or live ordinance was dropped or fired on or from the Vista Lakes Property during operation of the Pine Castle Jeep Range. Former activities of the PJR do not appear to have adversly impacted the subject property."

It is unclear if engineers were wrong or if they had no information available to them at the time of the initial survey.

The Army Corps of Engineers expects to be working at the site for at least a year.

The_Historian · #2 (**permalink**) May 18th, 2008, 03:39 PM

Good grief. And they seriously think buried explosives aren't going to create a crater if they explode? Have they seen pics of the Fauld explosion? http://www.carolyn.topmum.net/tutbur...auldcrater.htm
Unique circumstances, yes, but the principle's the same.

krieg · #3 (**permalink**) May 18th, 2008, 10:55 PM

a good read there keystone sounds like there are a fue people shakeing in there boots
would make me wounder a bit to
they should big out the old tank
thanks for showing this interesting read
cheers krieg

dgmitchell · #4 (**permalink**) May 19th, 2008, 04:24 AM

This has been an ongoing issue here in Orlando for the past half year or so. The article that Keystone posts is from a January issue of the Orlando Sentinel, as I recall. Bombs were found towards the end of last year and the class action lawsuits against various builders started getting filed in January. Several have been filed so far, based on newspaper reports. So . . . . because the United States went to war several decades ago, it started to train some of its troops in pre-air conditioned Central Florida, resulting in unexploded ordinance getting buried in pastures that were developed 60 years later and now the builders are getting sued. It seems like the land should have been cleaned up before it was sold to the builders!