Pocketburgers.com: Engineer: Tank Found In Pit At Middle School

Monday, January 7, 2008

Engineer: Tank Found In Pit At Middle School

UPDATED: 7:30 am EST January 7,
2008

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.