Fire Destroys Building Used for Lab Testing at Point Mugu Navy Base

A small lab building at the Point Mugu Navy base was destroyed Friday after a fire broke out inside a soundproof chamber where high-energy military components are tested.

The blaze started at 3:45 p.m. when an unidentified material being used in a test caught fire, base spokeswoman Teri Reid said. The cause of the fire and the amount of damage were not known late Friday.

The two people working inside the lab when the fire started were not injured, but three men working outside suffered shortness of breath and smoke inhalation, said Linda Wadley, another base spokeswoman.

The victims are civilian employees. One was taken to St. John’s Hospital in Oxnard and two went to Pleasant Valley Hospital in Camarillo. Their names were not released.

“They were complaining of tightness in the chest,” Wadley said. “They were taken in for observation.”

The building that burned was 30 feet tall and 100 feet wide and was in the southwest portion of the base near the beach. Because its walls were lined with an acoustical foam rubber, officials opted to keep firefighters outside and let the structure burn. There were concerns that the burning foam might emit fumes harmful to firefighters.

The blaze was extinguished at 6:45 p.m.

“It wasn’t that they couldn’t control it,” Reid said. “It was a precaution to just let it burn rather than going in.”

More than 50 firefighters from Point Mugu, Oxnard, the Construction Battalion Center in Port Hueneme and the Ventura County Fire Department responded to the blaze, along with hazardous materials specialists and a hook-and-ladder team.

Flames could be seen from nearly a mile away and large thick clouds of black smoke were visible from several miles away, witnesses said.

The building contained the test lab, referred to as an anechoic chamber, a small office and a workshop. The lab was used to test several components, such as antennas, to get what Reid called a “radar signature.”

The building sat several miles from base housing, but was adjacent to another building that was not damaged.

Point Mugu is the county’s largest military base in terms of size. It contains 907 buildings. More than 2,600 people work at the base and 2,390 people live there.