Wildfires in Texas Panhandle grow, prompt disaster declaration
A nuclear weapons facility in the Texas Panhandle said it had evacuated some staff Tuesday amid wind-fueled wildfires that covered thousands of acres and prompted the governor to issue a disaster declaration.
A nuclear weapons facility in the Texas Panhandle said it had evacuated some staff Tuesday amid wind-fueled wildfires that covered thousands of acres and prompted the governor to issue a disaster declaration.
The Pantex Plant, which handles nuclear weapons, said it was monitoring the situation but that there was no fire on the plant site. All weapons were safe and unaffected, the facility said.
“We are responding to the plant, but there is no fire on site or on our boundary,” Laef Pendergraft, spokesman for the National Nuclear Security Administration Production Office stationed at Pantex, said at a news conference Tuesday night.
No deaths have been reported in the fires, which officials say are being fueled by hot, dry conditions, and which prompted a disaster declaration.
“I issued a disaster declaration today to ensure critical fire response resources are swiftly deployed to areas in the Texas Panhandle being impacted by devastating wildfires,” Gov. Greg Abbott said in a statement Tuesday.
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