Out-of-control wildfire threatens US nuclear site

Out-of-control wildfire threatens US nuclear site
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE

SEATTLE (WASHINGTON), JUNE 29: A spectacular wildfire continued to race across the arid sagebrush of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation on Thursday, forcing the evacuation of more than 7,000 people.

The out-of-control blaze threatened a laboratory containing radioactive waste on the Hanford reservation, a former nuclear weapons production site that contains the nation's largest volume of nuclear waste.

The 60,703-hectare (150,000-acre) fire doubled in size and jumped the Yakima River late Wednesday, prompting Washington state governor Gary Locke to declare a state of emergency and to call in the National Guard -- the official state militia -- to assist in the sometimes chaotic evacuations of two nearby communities.

Flames crossed Route 240 in three places, pushing into the 200 West Area of Hanford, where waste is stored from the production of plutonium for nuclear weapons. The nuclear threat abated after winds pushed the fire south and east early on Wednesday.

"It looks like the sky is on fire. It looks like hell. It's scary," Betty Upington of Richland told reporters on Wednesday night. "Multiple structures have been burned," Michael Minette of the Hanford Joint Information Center told AFP. All Hanford facilities are in "safe status," Minette said, adding there were "no reports of any radiological releases."

But an anti-nuclear group warned the fire, some 225 kilometres (140 miles) southeast of Seattle, could burn radioactive soils and spew contaminated particles into the air.

This incident comes after the May's wildfire at Los Alamos Laboratory in New Mexico, which is home to the United States' most important nuclear weapon's laboratory. "We urge state officials to independently monitor to protect the public and fire fighters from the hazards of airborne radioactive contaminated particles," Gerald Pollet, director of Heart of America Northwest told local media.

One man suffered burns over 30 percent of his body and a 46-year old man was airlifted to a Seattle hospital where he was listed in serious condition. Most of the burned homes were just South of Hanford, Dale Brunson of Benton County Emergency Services said.

About 500 fire fighters were on the scene early Thursday and hundreds more were on their way. Airplanes and helicopters from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) also were expected. The American Red Cross set up emergency shelters at local high schools to accept evacuees. The fire began on Tuesday in dry grass along the shoulder of a highway when a car slammed head-on into a tractor-trailer rig near the West gate to the 1,450-square-kilometre (560-square-mile) reservation in central Washington State.