Forest fire razes bomb laboratories
Julian Borger in Washington
Tuesday May 16, 2000
The Guardian

The birthplace of the atomic bomb succumbed to the forces of nature at the
weekend when the site of the secret wartime Manhattan Project was burned
down by a forest fire sweeping across New Mexico, it was reported yesterday..

The complex of buildings where US scientists worked on the prototype bombs
dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was razed as the fire - originally started
as a "controlled burn" - encroached on the Los Alamos nuclear laboratories.
They had been earmarked by the White House as historic sites under the "Save
America's Treasures" programme.

Nearly a third of the 43 sq mile site was affected. According to a damage
assessment report quoted by Reuters: "The historic V-site complex from the
Manhattan Project has been lost except for the high-bay building where the
Trinity high explosive assembly was configured."

The Trinity bomb was the first atomic weapon detonated, on a test site in
the southern New Mexico desert, on July 16 1945.

Officials at Los Alamos said firefighters had succeeded in keeping the
flames away from the current plutonium storage sites and radioactive waste
dumps. The energy department had assured nearby residents that there was
never any danger of a nuclear accident because the storage sites were
protected by heavy concrete shells.

State officials said yesterday that the fire, which has already burned
42,000 acres (16,800 hectares) of New Mexico forest, was "28% contained",
and 7,000 local residents were allowed to return to their homes. But they
said the Los Alamos laboratories were not out of danger, because anticipated
high winds could fan the fire again.

The fire began last week as a deliberately set "controlled burn" intended to
clear dry bush along a cordon to limit the spread of future forest fires.
But high temperatures and strong winds fanned the blaze out of control in an
area suffering its worst drought for more than two centuries.

The blaze has already caused an estimated $1bn (£625m) in damage, destroying
260 homes and sending 20,000 people fleeing for safety. The national parks
official who ordered the "controlled burn" has been sent on leave while the
fire is being investigated.

Yesterday the fire was reported to be to within half a mile of ancient
native American cliff dwellings and the small adobe town of Abiquiu, the
setting and inspiration for many of the paintings of the artist Georgia
O'Keeffe, who lived there for nearly 40 years.

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