Thriving California enclave becomes eerie ghost town after hidden danger forced residents to flee

A once thriving California Air Force Base has turned into a ghost town 32 years after it was shut down amid a rampant asbestos problem and presence of dangerous chemicals.

George Air Force Base (AFB), originally known as Victorville Army Airfield, was established in World War II to to support tactical fighter operations and train air crews.

It closed for good in December 1992, two years after the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) deemed it a Superfund site due to a shocking discovery of soil, water and air contaminants. Years later, several former residents have suffered a litany of serious health issues.

Since its closing, explorers have posted videos online touring the desolate grounds showing vandalized homes, shops, schools and other rundown facilities.

'The sprawl of abandoned and occasionally dilapidated buildings, dead landscape and years of collected tumble weeds creates a very eerie site,' said one visitor.

Other images show housing complexes with the windows and stairs smashed in as well as a medical building covered in shattered glass.

'I'll be honest, this place freaks me out just a little bit,' another explorer said. 'It's just a disaster. The contamination on the ground is terrible. It's just a really sad sight because this has a lot of history in it.'

The 5,347-acre base is located approximately 70 miles northeast of Los Angeles in San Bernardino County near the cities of Victorville and Adelanto.

During its operation, the EPA found that there was mandated use and disposal of hazardous and non-hazardous materials on the site.

'At least 50 years of military aircraft operations resulted in various contaminants of potential concern (COPCs) being released into soil and leaching into groundwater, potentially impacting human health and the environment,' the agency said. 

The EPA said groundwater on George AFB is contaminated with jet fuel, trichloroethylene (TCE), pesticides and nitrates. 

Soil is contaminated with total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPHs), dioxins, construction debris, medical wastes, pesticides, semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs) and various inorganic compounds. 

More than 100,000 people were potentially exposed to unsafe levels of hazardous, toxic and radioactive materials on and around the site, according to George AFB Info, a website run by a former airman who lived on the base. 

Nearly 20,000 people lived in the surrounding community and 80,000 worked, lived, and went to school on the base.

George AFB Info obtained a copy of a preliminary review of environmental requirements and concerns of the base from 1993 that found 40 percent of buildings built before 1980 on the site tested positive for asbestos.

In 2020, at least 51 plaintiffs tried to sue the federal government claiming exposure to toxic chemicals from the base led to an array of medical problems, from cancer and heart disease to miscarriages and infertility, reported The Orange County Register.

However, a judge threw out their lawsuit claiming the federal government has 'sovereign immunity.' 

In recent years, people who lived on the base have been speaking out about the illnesses they suffered, and women shared stories of being told by officials not to get pregnant while living there.

Denise Torri and her husband served at George together from 1986 to 1989. She told the Military Times shortly after they got married in 1987, she got pregnant but had a miscarriage.

When she went to the doctor on base, Torri said they warned her: 'Don't get pregnant.'

'Wouldn't you just assume it was to get you to relax [in order to have a successful pregnancy]' Torri said. 'You don't think they are really telling you, 'Don't get pregnant.' 

Terrine Crooks told Truthout that while living on the base in 1981 she became pregnant and gave birth to her son 13 weeks prematurely. 

Her son experienced multiple brain hemorrhages shortly after he was born and developed an array of health conditions including cerebral palsy.

Crooks said she also developed health conditions that led to her having a hysterectomy at 31 and a bilateral mastectomy at 40. 

When she learned George was named a Superfund site she filed a claim to the Veteran's Association and won in 2014. The decision stated her medical conditions were 'at least as likely as not' caused by her military service, specifically her time at the base,

'I support the military 100 percent, but I'm pissed off and angry that they could do this to me and my family,' Crooks told the outlet. 'I'm mad as hell, to be honest.'