A car caught on fire after its driver tried to enter illegally through the main gate of Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California, on Friday evening.
“We can confirm at approximately 6:30 p.m. there was an attempt to gain unauthorized access to the installation,” the Marine base announced via Twitter Friday night. “The MCB Camp Pendleton Provost Marshall Office deployed the final denial barriers and disabled the vehicle.”
“After the vehicle made contact with the final denial barriers, it did ignite on fire,” 1st Lt. Taylor Schrick, a spokeswoman for the base, added in a statement to Marine Corps Times.
Video that circulated on social media and on local news station ABC 7 appears to show the front part of a car engulfed in flames, having hit security barriers sticking out of the ground.
The car’s occupants were taken to nearby Palomar Hospital and their conditions are unknown, Schrick said in the statement.
The base temporarily closed the main gate but reopened it at approximately 9 p.m., according to Schrick.
“This matter is under investigation,” Schrick said in the statement to Marine Corps Times.
This isn’t the first time that someone has forcibly tried to enter a military base without authorization.
In September 2022, a man fleeing the scene of a car crash died after ramming into the security barriers at Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Florida. Another man died in April 2022 from crashing into the barriers at Luke Air Force Base, Arizona.
Irene Loewenson is a staff reporter for Marine Corps Times. She joined Military Times as an editorial fellow in August 2022. She is a graduate of Williams College, where she was the editor-in-chief of the student newspaper.
