Christian BryantFour U.S. Marines were killed at Camp Pendleton in San Diego, Calif., Wednesday after an explosive device detonated on the range of the base.
San Diego news outlets report the incident happened around 11 a.m. at the Zulu impact area, a place used for artillery and bombing practice near the center of the 125,000-acre base. (Via U.S. Marine Corps.)
A Marine official told KNSD the Marines who died were ordnance disposal technicians, though it's unclear whether they were sweeping the range for munitions or performing a training exercise. No firing was going on in the area at the time of the incident.
According to the U-T San Diego, "Camp Pendleton's Explosive Ordnance Disposal Detachment is responsible for clearing firing ranges of unexploded bombs and artillery shells between training exercises."
This accident comes eight months after seven Marines died during a nighttime live fire exercise at Hawthorne Army Depot in Nevada. CBS reported the Marines were practicing firing mortars when one of the rounds exploded while still inside the firing tube.
Wednesday's deadly incident is just one of several to happen at Camp Pendleton within the last few years.
In January 2011, a battalion commander was fired after an assault vehicle sank to the bottom of a basin during an exercise, killing one person. Two Navy sailors died in March of that year after a water truck rolled over during a Navy-Marine training exercise. That September, a helicopter crash killed two Marines and sparked a brush fire. Fast forward to December 2012, when a Marine died in a car accident during a training exercise. And just this past February, another Marine died while skydiving as a part of a training exercise. (Via YouTube / AIRBOYD , KSWB, KFMB)
The names of the Marines killed in the range accident Wednesday will not be released until 24 hours after the next of kin are notified. The cause of the accident is under investigation.
