Fire Crews Block Blaze From Nuclear Lab

Hundreds of firefighters torched brush ahead of an approaching wildfire Tuesday, managing to keep flames from shooting toward a laboratory where radioactive materials are stored.

About 750 firefighters working the Dome Fire in New Mexico were buoyed Tuesday by their brush “burnout,” which helped turn the forest fire back upon itself. Firefighters declared the blaze 40 percent contained.

The burnout helped them keep the blaze from jumping into heavily forested Frijoles Canyon, the heart of Bandelier National Monument, with its ancient Indian ruins - and away from Los Alamos National Laboratory, the birthplace of the atomic bomb.