Range 12 Fire
The Range 12 Fire was a large wildfire that burned in Benton and Yakima County, Washington, United States, from July 30 to August 8, 2016. No injuries or fatalities resulted from the fire, and no building damage was reported. The fire threatened the Hanford Nuclear Reservation and burnt parts of the Hanford Reach National Monument and the Arid Lands Ecology Reserve, the third time in sixteen years. Over 400 personnel from various federal, state, and local agencies and organizations responded to contain and extinguish the fire, which costed $1.7 million.
The fire was caused by a round of ammunition from machine gun fire that ricocheted and landed on brush at the Yakima Training Center during a live fire exercise, igniting the fire. Hot, dry, and windy conditions in the area caused the fire to spread rapidly through grassland throughout the first four days until it was primarily contained on August 2. Following the fire in 2018, a $15 million lawsuit was filed by ranchers in the area whose property was damaged by the fire against the Department of Defense directed at personnel working at the Yakima Training Center, claiming that their fire response was inadequate. The lawsuit was later dismissed due to questions of jurisdiction.
Background
s are a natural part of the ecological cycle of the Northwestern United States, but human-induced climate change has caused them to increase in number, destructiveness, duration, and frequency. Fire suppression efforts can also have the contradictory effect of worsening the effects of fires that do occur. The Range 12 Fire was one of Washington wildfires|1,272 wildfires] that burned in Washington in 2016. The National Interagency Fire Center predicted a typical wildfire season for the state of Washington. Despite an early start, the 2016 season was milder in both total wildfires and acreage burned compared to the 2015 wildfire season.Before the fire, the Hanford Reach National Monument and surrounding regions were in the process of recovering from two previous wildfires, the 24 Command Fire in 2000 and the Overlook Fire in 2007. The 24 Command Fire spread across all of the Arid Lands Ecology Reserve and part of the Hanford Reach National Monument which included Rattlesnake Mountain, the boundary of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. It also burnt down 11 homes in Benton City. Following the 24 Command Fire, $6 million was spent on restoring the Hanford Reach National Monument, which included planting local sagebrushes such as the Wyoming big sagebrush and the threetip sagebrush. The Overlook Fire burned around of the Reserve but did not threaten the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. The area affected by both wildfires was still in the process of regrowth before the Range 12 Fire.
On July 29, 2016, a day before the fire, the National Weather Service in Pendleton, Oregon had issued a red flag warning for high wind gusts and low relative humidity in the area. On the same day, the Yakima Training Center had already put out multiple fires related to live fire exercises. Weather in the Tri-Cities region was forecasted to have temperatures highs of, southwesterly winds of, and a relative humidity around 20 percent throughout the day.
Fire
At approximately 4:40 pm, July 30, 2016, during a live fire exercise at the Yakima Training Center, a tracer round from an M249 Squad Automatic Weapon had ricocheted and landed on brush, igniting the fire. In the span of seven hours, the fire had spread to more than and had jumped Washington [State Route 24]. The winds the following morning were blowing at, causing the fire to spread rapidly. Although the winds had died down during the evening, the fire had already rapidly spread to acres. Washington State Route 225 was closed at the intersections of River Road and Acord Road near Benton City, and at Washington State Route 240. State Route 24 was also closed at milepost 8.5 west towards the intersection with Washington State Route 241.The following day, firefighters attempted to set a backburn on top of Rattlesnake Mountain to prevent the wildfire from spreading towards the Hanford Nuclear Reservation and Benton City, but was abandoned due to dangerous windy conditions which caused the wildfire to rapidly spread towards the backburn location. Around 9:00 pm, the firefighters attempted to set another backburn on Rattlesnake Mountain towards the bottom slope, which was successful on their second attempt. By August 2, the fire had expanded, from to. Another red flag warning was issued for areas around the Columbia River in southern Washington the same day due to gusty winds and low relative humidity caused by a dry cold front moving throughout the area. By the end of the day, containment was listed at 20 percent.
The next day, containment was listed at 60 percent with 228 firefighters assigned to the fire. Firefighters continued working on reinforcing containment lines around the 117-mile perimeter of the fire, which had largely stopped expanding because of natural features close to the perimeter of the fire that prevented spread along with the first containment lines. On August 4, containment was listed at 90 percent with approximately 170 firefighters assigned. Firefighters worked on putting out hot spots within the fire's burned area, one of which was a downed telephone line. The fire was officially declared 100 percent contained on August 6.