Fast-Moving Fire Threatens Nuclear Lab, 500 Homes
A wind-blown brush fire outside Livermore threatened a nuclear weapons laboratory, hundreds of homes and the closure of two major freeways Tuesday.
Hundreds of firefighters battled the blaze that began Tuesday afternoon near Tracy and consumed more than 7,000 acres of grassland as it quickly spread through the Altamont Pass, which is home to hundreds of turbines that produce energy with wind.
“The Altamont Pass is of course infamous for that ... the high winds,” said Bill Morrison, an assistant chief with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. The fire “grew from a small spot alongside the road to 3,000 acres in about an hour.”
The fast-moving fire prompted officials at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to declare an operational emergency, allowing agencies from outside the lab to come in and help protect an experimental test site at the facility.
No structures were damaged, but firefighters expected to work throughout the night trying to contain the fire while defending about 500 homes in its path.
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