Wildfire near nuclear waste storage site is much bigger than thought
The estimated size of the fire that burned through Yakima and Benton counties toward the Hanford nuclear reservation has been more than doubled to 273 square miles.
The fire spread little on Monday, according to the Northwest Incident Management Team assigned to the Range 12 Fire.
But once the smoke cleared enough for a helicopter to fly the perimeter of the fire with a global positioning system, a better estimate of the size of the fire was made. Fire officials increased the estimate from 110 square miles to 273 square miles late Monday.
Hanford once made plutonium for nuclear weapons and is now undergoing a decades-long cleanup.
The fire was just 10 percent contained Tuesday morning, but a large area had been burned on Rattlesnake Mountain and nearby land on the Hanford Reach National Monument to keep the fire from spreading to Benton City or the Hanford nuclear reservation. Fire perimeters in the area were patrolled overnight Monday.
Firefighters sacrificed the mountain, which is part of one of the last shrub steppe ecosystems in the Columbia Basin, to prevent a repeat of the 24 Command Fire in June 2000. It burned the mountain and spread across Hanford, threatening radioactive waste storage areas, and destroyed 11 homes in Benton City.
A red flag fire warning has been issued for the Mid-Columbia Tuesday because of gusty winds and low humidity as a dry cold front moves through the area. Established fire perimeter lines could be threatened, according to the incident management team.
West winds of 15 to 20 mph are forecast with gusts up to 30 mph. Humidity should be about 20 percent.
Firefighters planned to continue patrolling the fire perimeter to search for hot spots and watch for potential flare ups Tuesday.
The fire started Saturday on the Yakima Training Center and spread south initially. Changing wind patterns then pushed it east toward Hanford and Benton City. By Sunday it was burning between Highways 240 and 241.
No cause has been determined.
No houses were considered threatened Tuesday but earlier the fire threatened 250 homes.
Crews fighting the fire have included 404 people, three helicopters, 34 fire engines and four bulldozers. Crews have come from as far away as Medford, Oregon, to help fight the fire.
A temporary flight restriction is in place after a drone interfered with firefighting operations from the air over the weekend.
The Associated Press contributed.
This story was originally published August 2, 2016 at 2:55 PM with the headline "Wildfire near nuclear waste storage site is much bigger than thought."