Fire at shooting range is latest in long history of problems

VIRGINIA BEACH

The fire that ripped through an indoor shooting range Sunday, injuring seven people, is the latest in a string of problems at the facility.

In the past year, A&P Arms' Lynnhaven Shooting Range has been cited for worker safety violations; had a former manager sent to prison for stealing, selling and giving away guns; and has its license under investigation by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Sunday's fire, which is under investigation, was the third at the business in the past 15 years, fire officials said.

Four of the injured are hospitalized but are doing better, Battalion Chief Leon Dextradeur said.

"They are all upright and talking and have different levels of burn injuries, but none appears to be critical at this time," he said.

A&P Arms is owned by Shooting Sports Distributors Inc. The president of the company is Norman Gladden Jr., according to state records. He did not respond to voice messages Monday on his cell phone and at the store.

A message on the store's answering machine said, "We are temporarily closed and will reopen as soon as possible."

The fire started in one of the store's three shooting lanes and ignited a wood divider that separates them, Dextradeur said.

"With the backing they use to catch the bullets, you'll get lead and other debris that will back up there," said Mike Campbell, spokesman for the ATF. "Depending on their cleaning method, you may get a spark that will start a fire.

"I don't know if there was material that hadn't been cleared out or what. That appears to be what happened at Woodbridge and maybe happened here," Campbell said.

In March 2007, a fire engulfed Shooter's Paradise, a gun store and firing range in Woodbridge in Northern Virginia. No one was injured.

In 1994, an explosion sparked a fire at the A&P shooting range. No one was hurt. An accumulation of chemicals may have caused that fire, officials said at the time.

In June, A&P Arms was fined $1,740 after being cited for five violations by the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

The violations were for "lead, inorganic fumes and dusts" and employee exposure to sodium hydroxide.

Last month, a former store manager was sentenced to 15 months for stealing firearms, including a submachine gun. ATF agents identified 51 guns that Marcus A. McCall sold, gave away or kept in his Virginia Beach home, according to court records. McCall worked at the A&P Arms store in Hampton, but often transported guns to the Virginia Beach store, court records showed.

The store's ATF license is under review, confirmed Campbell. He said the investigation is not related to Sunday's fire but declined to give details.

Aaron Applegate, (757) 222-5122, aaron.applegate@pilotonline.com