Wildfire · Warren Grove and Stafford Forge
The errant practice bomb at Warren Grove (2001)
Documented history · Sources compared
A 25-pound training bomb landed beyond the cleared target area and started a 1,600-acre wildfire on June 10, 2001.
Two people spotted the smoke
DEP’s June 12 statement attributed the fire to a 25-pound Bomb Dummy Unit dropped by a New Jersey Air National Guard aircraft. It landed in uncleared brush in Stafford Forge Wildlife Management Area beside the range. State Firewarden Dave Harrison, already airborne near another small fire, and an observer at Apple Pie Lookout Tower reported the new smoke simultaneously.
The fire spread across 1,600 acres in five hours. Patrols continued because wind and smoldering turf threatened renewed burning.
What remained under investigation
The agencies had identified the dropped training device as the ignition source. Why it went astray was still under investigation. Commissioner Bob Shinn suggested a mechanical failure as a likely explanation; the statement did not present that suggestion as a completed finding.
This is the June 2001 bomb incident. The much larger May 2007 fire involved flares and a separate investigation.
Sources and research limits
NJDEP release 01/70, June 12, 2001, is the contemporary source. The final Air National Guard investigation has not been located in this pass, so the mechanical-failure explanation remains provisional.