A wildfire burned an estimated 3,000 acres of the Hanford Site in Washington state early Saturday morning.
Mission Support Alliance, the Department of Energy contractor in charge of the Hanford Fire Department, said the blaze was discovered at 3:20 a.m. and was contained at 6:50 a.m.
The fire burned across grass and brush in the southwest portion of the production area at Hanford, reaching no buildings or waste sites, according to Mission Support Alliance. Most of the remaining waste sites and buildings are in in central Hanford.
The cause of the fire was not released over the weekend, but a lightning storm passed through Eastern Washington on Friday night.
Highway 240, a public highway between the production area and original security zone at the western side of Hanford, was closed for several hours early Saturday morning. Workers were told to avoid the Yakima Barricade entrance to Hanford on Highway 240 and to instead use the Wye Barricade just north of the Tri-Cities.
