Range 12 Fire
Date(s)	July 30 (30-07) – August 6, 2016 (2016-08-06) (8 days)
Location	Benton County and Yakima County, Washington, United States
Coordinates	46°35′13″N 119°58′37″W / 46.587°N 119.977°W / 46.587; -119.977
Statistics
Burned area	176,600 acres (71,500 ha; 275.9 sq mi)
Impacts
Damage	$1.7 million (equivalent to $2.3 million in 2025)
Ignition
Cause	Live fire exercise
Map
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The Range 12 Fire was a large wildfire that burned 176,600 acres (71,500 ha) 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 (equivalent to $2.3 million in 2025).

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.

Wildfires are a natural part of the ecological cycle of the Northwestern United States,^[1] but human-induced climate change has caused them to increase in number, destructiveness, duration, and frequency.^[2] Fire suppression efforts can also have the contradictory effect of worsening the effects of fires that do occur.^[3] The Range 12 Fire was one of 1,272 wildfires that burned 293,717 acres (118,863 ha) in Washington in 2016.^[4] The National Interagency Fire Center predicted a typical wildfire season for the state of Washington.^[5] Despite an early start, the 2016 season was milder in both total wildfires and acreage burned compared to the 2015 wildfire season.^[6]

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 77,000 acres (31,000 ha) 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.^[7] It also burnt down 11 homes in Benton City.^[8] 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 55,000 acres (22,000 ha) 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.^[8]

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.^[9] Weather in the Tri-Cities region was forecasted to have temperatures highs of 95 °F (35 °C), southwesterly winds of 10–15 miles per hour (16–24 km/h), and a relative humidity around 20 percent throughout the day.^[10]

At approximately 4:40 pm (PST), July 30, 2016, during a live fire exercise at the Yakima Training Center, a bullet from machine gun fire had ricocheted and landed on brush, igniting the fire. In the span of seven hours, the fire had spread to more than 15,000 acres (6,100 ha) and had jumped Washington State Route 24.^[11] The winds the following morning were blowing at 15–20 miles per hour (24–32 km/h), causing the fire to spread rapidly. Although the winds had died down during the evening, the fire had already rapidly spread to 60,000 acres (24,000 ha) acres.^[11] 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.^[11]

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 successfully attempted to set another backburn on Rattlesnake Mountain towards the bottom slope.^[12] By August 2, the fire had expanded 100,000 acres (40,000 ha), from 70,000 acres (28,000 ha) to 176,000 acres (71,000 ha).^[13] 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.^[13][14] By the end of the day, containment was listed at 20 percent.^[15]

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.^[16] 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.^[17] The fire was officially declared 100 percent contained on August 6.^[4]

• Remote Sensing (journal)
  • Ba, Rui; Song, Weiguo; Li, Xiaolian; Xie, Zixi; Lo, Siuming (February 6, 2019). "Integration of Multiple Spectral Indices and a Neural Network for Burned Area Mapping Based on MODIS Data". Remote Sensing. 11 (3): 326. Bibcode:2019RemS...11..326B. doi:10.3390/rs11030326. ISSN 2072-4292.
  • Research about using satellite imagery to track fires on the ground. Much of their research was about the Range 12 fire.
• University of Washington
  • "Monitoring Impacts to Rare Plant Populations from Range 12 Fire - UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON". portal.nifa.usda.gov. Retrieved April 21, 2022. — research about potential rare (and possibly endangered) species near the Hanford Site that may have been impacted by the Range 12 fire.
• KIMA-TV — Yakima, Washington
  • "Range 12 Fire: 90 percent contained,176,000 acres burned in Yakima, Benton Counties". KIMA-TV. August 2, 2016. Retrieved April 21, 2022.
  • This citation contains helpful pictures and a map, and points out that the fire started at the Yakima Training Center.
• KEPR-TV
  • "Range 12 Fire Map: Officials say 70,000 acres burning in Yakima, Benton Counties". KEPR-TV. August 1, 2016. Retrieved April 21, 2022.
  • Link to map provided by KEPR-TV on August 1, when the fire was still out of control north of Sunnyside, Washington
• Tri-City Herald
  • "$15M lawsuit filed over wildfire that threatened Hanford". Tri-City Herald. January 26, 2018. Archived from the original on February 3, 2018. Retrieved April 21, 2022.
  • Story about the lawsuit filed a couple of years after the fire.
• WBUR-FM
  • King, Anna (September 6, 2016). "Washington State Wildfire Destroys Sensitive Habitat On National Land". WBUR-FM / Northwest News Network. Retrieved April 21, 2022.
• Yale University Press
  • Jacobs, R.A. (2022). Nuclear Bodies: The Global Hibakusha. Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300230338.
  • Quote from the book: "In the summer of 2016, numerous large wildfires threatened to spread across the Hanford Reservation. Most concerning was the Range 12 fire that spread from Grant and Yakima Counties into Benton County, where the sprawling nuclear site is located. The fire threatened to summit Rattlesnake Mountain and spread into the Hanford Nuclear Site itself."
• Seattle Times
  • "Yakima area wildfire is 90 percent contained". The Seattle Times. August 4, 2016. Archived from the original on August 6, 2016. Retrieved April 24, 2022. Yakima Herald-Republic
• Yakima Herald-Republic - July 30, 2016
  • "Photos: Up close at the Yakima Training Center fire". Yakima Herald-Republic. July 30, 2016. Archived from the original on April 24, 2022. Retrieved April 25, 2022.