Seal Beach : Marine Sentries’ Flare Starts 4-Acre Grass Fire

Marine sentries looking for an intruder--who turned out to be a Marine--fired a flare that ignited a four-acre grass fire, a spokeswoman for the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station said Wednesday.

The fire, which burned in the 1,000-acre National Wildlife Refuge located within the 5,000-acre base, was extinguished about midnight Tuesday by Navy and Orange County firefighters after about an hour, public affairs officer Tracey Schwarze said. No one was injured, she said.

The fire caused no damage to birds or nesting sites in the refuge, and only marsh grass burned, Schwarze said.

Sentries launched the flare about 11 p.m. to illuminate a marsh area where they had “detected unidentified movement,” Schwarze said. “It turned out to be someone from the base that they saw.”

Schwarze said the Marine posed “no security threat,” and had permission to be in the refuge. But she added that his presence in the area would be “very unusual” for the sentries.

The base stores ammunition for the Navy’s Pacific fleet ships.