A large wildfire spread across the Hanford Site’s security perimeter onto the main portion of the Department of Energy complex late Sunday night. It burned from the west across Highway 24 onto the northwest section of the facility, according to Rae Moss, spokeswoman for Hanford support services and firefighting contractor Mission Support Alliance.
The Hanford Fire Department contained the blaze at 6 a.m. Monday after disking a vegetation-free line around the fire. Flames could still be seen within the disk line Monday morning. No structures or contaminated areas burned, Moss said.
An estimate of the fire size within Hanford was not immediately available, but the overall size of the fire, which was burning mostly off the site, was estimated at 8,500 acres on Monday. The fire’s cause had not been determined.
Nonessential Hanford workers were told to evacuate the site at 12:05 a.m. Monday through the Wye Barricade, but few nonessential employees were at work then.
Highways 24 and 240 were closed Monday and nonessential workers in central Hanford and the reactor areas were told to report to work on a delayed schedule. Work at the Waste Treatment Plant also started several hours late Monday. Workers were restricted to entering the site through its southern security entrance, the Wye Barricade.
