Quantico Mayor says his plea for emergency access denied by Marine Corps Base amid brush fires, traffic chaos

Quantico Mayor Kevin Brown says the Marine Corps base in which his town sits will not open a closed gate that would provide emergency crews easier access to the town while brush fires rage and traffic remains snarled for five miles.

Brown said he placed multiple requests to Quantico Marine Corps Base officials to open a gate on Broadway Street. Brown said the additional access would make it easier for fire and rescue crews to access the town in an emergency.

Brown’s request was met with a “no,” and military police officers laughed at him on the phone, he said. Meanwhile, he’s still working to escalate his request higher up in the Marine Corps command chain.

The requests come as a line of cars stretches from Hosptial Point through town and up the nearly five-mile stretch of Russell Road to the base’s main gate near Dumfries.

A series of brush fires closed a portion of Route 1. Emergency crews are working to douse the flames. Drivers stuck in the backup have been texting us information and photos of what they see to 571-989-1695.

Quantico erected the gate at Broadway Street in 2020, following heightened base security rules following the assassination of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani on January 2, 2020.

Brown said Quantico opened the gate this past weekend, March 16 and 17, to allow work on the railroad to commence. The gate was closed again on the evening of March 17.

For at least two years, Brown and members of his town council have petitioned to relax those restrictions and open the Broadway gate. Brown says trains often block the town’s main entrance at Potomac Avenue, preventing anyone, including emergency vehicles, from entering or exiting.

Earlier this month, Insidenova.com reported that a Montclair resident has filed a complaint in federal court against the Department of the Navy, alleging constitutional violations in restrictions on access to the town of Quantico.

Jennifer Nikolaisen claims the Navy-Marine Corps Installation Commander’s Interim Access Control Policy has caused a violation of First and Fifth Amendment rights by restricting access to the use of Fuller Road, which is the primary point of access to and from the town of Quantico, where Nikolaisen owns private property.