Fire at Groom Lake Mountains in 1999

I'm sure that many of us heard about it at least once. Here is an another example of quite mystery incident that happened into Groom Lake area in summer of 1999.

Groom Lake crash

I don't think that it really would be a drop tank from B-52 cause the burial area is too big for it. You can see it on the pics from the link.

Does anyone have any ideas?

a reply to: SpeedFanatic

I did not know about this, so thanks for sharing.

all i can say is that is a huge fire!!

i wonder what happened under ground to cause that?

a reply to: Phatdamage

I have heard many 'stories' to this story some people say that it was because of a thunder that hitted into a desert but the weather was fine that day..
Other say thatw it was caused by flares... But it not seems to be true for me...

a reply to: Phatdamage

B-52 external fuel tanks are huge. On the G and H model they're 700 gallon tanks. On older aircraft they were larger and about the size of a T-33.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Can your confirm that the fire was really caused by external drop tanks from B-52?

a reply to: Zaphod58

So Zaph,

i'm glad your here and are the oracle on aircraft info...

do you think this was a fuel tank?

why would the military change their story?

a reply to: Phatdamage

It kind of gives them a black eye to come out and say, "yeah, we screwed up while flying a 50 year old bomber out of our top secret test base, and burned a huge area around it."

As for if that's what it was? I don't know. It wouldn't be the first time a BUFF had parts fall off, and the tanks are designed to be jettisoned in case of damage, so it's certainly plausible.

a reply to: Zaphod58

but.....

by saying this story aren't they admitting to Area 51?

didn't think they admitted to it until 2013

Would a fuel burn that big?

a reply to: Phatdamage

Fuel spreads when the tanks burst, which let's other fuel ignite and start burning. It could easily spread beyond the initial fire.

They wouldn't have to admit to the base, it still gives them a black eye to have pieces falling off. I'm remote areas they can cover it up better.

Just a FYI here, the powers that be routinely let fires burn in the desert in remote areas. I spotted a fire around Mt. Irish while at "R place." I drive up to it and there was nobody around. You could get dangerously close if you wanted to do so. It watched it for a while, maybe 90 minutes, and nobody showed up.

There have been plenty of fires around the range that burn for weeks with no attempt to stop them. The assumption is they will eventually burn out.

Given the often long periods of absolutely nothing happening around the range, I've studied the plant life. Nothing at the lower elevations burns well. There is this grass-like plant that the cattle begrudgingly eat out of a lack of alternatives. (I spotted a cow pie with yucca "leaves" in it. That must have hurt.) There is grease wood and creosote. Neither burns well. At the higher elevations there is a type of juniper that does have some fuel capacity. So when you spot a fire burning for any length of time, it is always at the higher elevations. I managed to see two cloud to ground lightning hits in the lower elevations without a fire started.

Always use a bit of caution when somebody rules something out. I used to think the "locals" had a good handle on what happens around the base. But when you look at all the public sources regarding Groom Lake, basically websites, youtube, and Flickr, there isn't much duplication. Or more correctly simultaneous documentation of events. For example, take the Tikaboo weather station for example. There was a lot of chatter on the interwebs because no other websites had the photos and thus I was faking it. The same with the F-117 videos which were done by someone out of the country let alone out of the area.

I have other examples of "locals" not catching events at Groom Lake. If you are living in Rachel, you can't even listen to the base on a scanner. The only real locals are base workers and those living at the Medlin ranch. My point being don't rule out lightning. I would rule out flares since they shouldn't be dropped in that area.

There are plenty of youtube videos of jet fuel experiments. Unlike gasoline, the flash point is not at room temperature. You have to do a bit of work to make it burn. youtu.be...

It isn't the fuel that will get you, it is the vapors. And once you have vapors and an ignition source, you can turn the fuel into more vapors, etc.

So maybe something crashed, or maybe it was lightning.

I remember a documentary and one of the men in it worked there. He claimed they would use large burn pits to burn off chemicals and materials used to develop the stealth coating they were working on. He developed all kinds of health problems due to inhalation of the toxic fumes. The government denied all knowledge and denied such activities took place. Could be something to do with that.

originally posted by: sg1642
I remember a documentary and one of the men in it worked there. He claimed they would use large burn pits to burn off chemicals and materials used to develop the stealth coating they were working on. He developed all kinds of health problems due to inhalation of the toxic fumes. The government denied all knowledge and denied such activities took place. Could be something to do with that.

The burn pits were on the base. That was why the base was hit with "London fog."

This fire is not related to the burn pits. I have to assume the base fire department supervised the burn pits, so I doubt they would want to do that in the hills.

The inhumans that run these programs refused to acknowledge that they poisoned their workers. They got the adulterer Clinton to give them exemption from EPA regulations. Every other President has followed suit. To make a long story short, they don't give a s*t about human life. American or otherwise.