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No injuries or
exposure to the public were reported from the blaze, which
erupted on Sunday at the desert facilities of U.S. Ecology
outside the town of Beatty, about 90 miles northwest of Las
Vegas.
The fire was extinguished as of Monday with no signs of
smoldering or flames and air quality samples taken by aircraft
and at ground level have "revealed no contamination," the Nye
County Sheriff's Office said in a statement.
Governor Brian Sandoval said he had been briefed on the incident
and ordered a number of state agencies mobilized.
Authorities gave few details of the circumstances or extent of
the fire and there was no information about its cause. But
KLAS-TV, a CBS affiliate in Las Vegas, said the fire was
reported at a radioactive waste disposal cell that had been
closed in 1992.
U.S. Ecology, which processes low-level radioactive waste and
other hazardous materials from commercial and government
operations, is located 11 miles from Beatty High School and 8
miles from a small airport in Beatty. KLAS said two schools in
the area were closed on Monday as a precaution.
A stretch of Highway 95, a key north-south route through the
region, was also shut down after the fire erupted but was
reopened Monday evening once conditions were deemed safe.
Several other roads remained closed due to damage from unrelated
flash flooding in the area, the sheriff's office said.
(Writing and additional reporting by Steve Gorman in Los
Angeles; Editing by Michael Perry)
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