Wildfire at Livermore Lab's satellite declared emergency

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Jul 20, 2005 | by Kristofer Noceda, STAFF WRITER

LIVERMORE -- A fast-moving, wind-whipped grass fire consumed more than 6,000 acres Tuesday evening, reaching the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's Site 300 test facility near the border of Alameda and San Joaquin counties.

The blaze started about 4:30 p.m. near Greenville and Tesla roads just east of Livermore. By 5:45 p.m., lab officials had declared an "operational emergency" at the sprawling test site near Tracy.

"An operational emergency ... is declared when an event has occurred that may require mutual aid assistance ... from agencies outside the laboratory but does not involve, or potentially involve, the release of hazardous materials," a lab news release said.

Crews were setting backfires along the western portion of Site 300 to protect buildings and other facilities. Explosives at the test site are kept in underground bunkers and were not threatened by the fire, lab spokeswoman Anne Stark said.

Site 300 is 17 miles east of the laboratory'smain campus in Livermore. By nightfall, flames could be seen from the Tracy area, and smoke poured into the San Joaquin Valley. No injuries had been reported Tuesday night, and no structures had been burned.

A number of agencies were called to battle the fire, including the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, the Lawrence Lab fire department, Alameda County Fire, and departments from the Livermore-Pleasanton area, Tracy and San Joaquin County.

In addition to ground crews and dozens of pieces of equipment, helicopters and at least one air tanker were pressed into service to fight the fire from above.

Firefighters also had two smaller grass fires to contend with while the larger blaze spread from hundreds to thousands of acres.

Staff writer Mike Martinez contributed to this report.