A large wildfire spread across the security perimeter of the Hanford Site onto the main portion of the facility late Sunday night, burning 1,644 acres. The overall fire was contained to 30,984 acres by Thursday, but the Hanford Fire Department had the blaze on the main portion of the Department of Energy site contained at 6 a.m. Monday.
The grass and brush fire burned from west to east, crossing Highway 240 to the west of the southern section of the 200 West Area, according to Rae Moss, spokeswoman for Mission Support Alliance, which manages the Hanford Fire Department. The fire moved to the southeast, missing the 200 West Area, which includes about half of the site’s waste tanks, the Plutonium Finishing Plant, three former chemical processing plants and the 200 West Pump and Treat plant.
No structures or contaminated areas burned at Hanford, Moss said. The Hanford Fire Department contained the blaze by disking a vegetation-free line around it. Flames could still be seen within the disk line Monday morning, but the line was not breached. Vegetation is unusually heavy in Eastern Washington this year because of a wet winter, followed by a cool, wet spring that allowed grass to grow taller than normal before it dried out to provide potential fuel for wildfires.
Nonessential night shift workers at Hanford were sent home shortly after midnight Monday morning. Highways 24 and 240 were closed Monday, requiring workers to enter the site through its southern security entrance, the Wye Barricade, rather than the Yakima or Rattlesnake barricades. Nonessential workers in central Hanford, the reactor areas, and at the Waste Treatment Plant were told to report on a delayed schedule Monday morning.
