Updates:
http://www.nandotimes.com/front/story/0,1108,500222623-500318707-501791977-0,00.html
http://www.wa.gov/ecology/nwp/fire.html
Blaze Explodes in Washington State
June 29, 2000
ASSOCIATED PRESS
RICHLAND, Wash. (AP) -- A huge wildfire that roared across the Hanford nuclear reservation was burning out of control early Thursday in the arid sagebrush country of southern Washington. At least 25 homes had been destroyed and thousands of people were urged to evacuate.
The fire exploded late Wednesday, doubling in size to 100,000 acres as it closed highways and briefly threatened a Hanford building holding radioactive waste. It later jumped the Yakima River and began burning homes near Benton City, about 10 miles west of Richland.
"It looks like the sky is on fire. It looks like hell. It's scary," said Betty Upington of Richland, where some people were also asked to evacuate. There were no confirmed reports of injuries from the second wildfire this year to threaten one of the nation's premier nuclear facilities.
Authorities have asked 7,000 people to leave the communities of West Richland and Benton City, just south of the sprawling reservation.
"It's like a ghost town," said Amanda Meredith, 20, of Benton City. "I believe my house is already burned down."
The Red Cross set up shelters in nearby Kennewick and Gov. Gary Locke declared a state of emergency in Benton County, activating the National Guard to assist in the evacuations.
The flames, fueled by 100-degree temperatures and winds gusting to 30 mph, overwhelmed about 350 firefighters Wednesday. About 600 more from across the region were expected to arrive soon, aided by airplanes and helicopters from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The fire was sparked by a fatal car wreck on Tuesday and has burned sagebrush that makes up most of the 560-square-mile reservation. For a time, it threatened buildings at the site which contains the nation's largest volume of nuclear waste.
Hanford was established as part of the secret Manhattan Project to build an atomic bomb during World War II. Today, its mission is cleaning up radioactive and hazardous waste created during 40 years of plutonium production for the nation's nuclear arsenal.
Smoke sent two workers to a hospital for treatment Wednesday, said Michael Turner, spokesman for Fluor Hanford, a reservation contractor. About 1,700 Hanford employees were either sent home Wednesday or told not to report for work.
Earlier Wednesday, the Energy Department issued an emergency declaration as flamed neared a laboratory where nuclear and hazardous waste samples are stored, said Michael Minette of the Hanford Joint Information Center. Winds later pushed the flames away.
Energy Department officials said there were no known waste releases.
An anti-nuclear group warned that the fire could burn radioactive soils and spew contaminated particles into the air.
"We urge state officials to independently monitor to protect the public and firefighters from the hazards of airborne radioactive contaminated particles," said Gerald Pollet, director of Heart of America Northwest.
Earlier this month, the federal government warned that radioactive-contaminated soil from the Los Alamos National Laboratory could flush into the Rio Grande River after a fire raced through the New Mexico site.
The fire season across the country is already the worst since 1996, according to the National Interagency Fire Center in Idaho. More than 48,000 fires have burned 1.3 million acres.
President Clinton and Energy Secretary Bill Richardson have offered any federal assistance needed in fighting the Hanford blaze, said Keith Klein, manager of the Hanford site.
Updates:
http://www.nandotimes.com/front/story/0,1108,500222623-500318707-501791977-0,00.html
http://www.wa.gov/ecology/nwp/fire.html
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