Re: Fire may cost Los Alamos lab at least $300 million

[Paul Lavely <lavelyp@uclink4.berkeley.edu>]

>Fire may cost Los Alamos lab at least $300 million
>
>SANTA FE, New Mexico, June 9 (Reuters) - Damages to the
>largest U.S. nuclear weapons laboratory in May from New Mexico's
>largest wildfire could total more than $300 million, lab officials said
>on Friday.
>
>The fire also wiped out several years worth of scientific research by
>some of the lab's 12,000 workers when a trailer used as an office
>was gutted, destroying 20 personal computers at the birthplace of
>the atomic bomb.

Also there were about 300 homes lost in the Los Alamos fire.



I realize that this fire was a tragedy. The tragedy is made even 
worse by the fact that appears that it was caused by less than the 
best planning effort by a US governmental agency; however, may I 
contrast this to the fire statistics of the 1991 fire in the Berkeley 
hills:

25 Deaths
150 Injuries
2,843 Single Family Dwellings Destroyed
193 Single Family Dwellings Damaged
433 Apartment Units Destroyed
A Total of 3,469 Living Units Damaged or Destroyed
Estimated Dollar Fire Loss $1,537,000,000.
Any reimbursement was from private insurance.
Amount of research materials and files at UCB faculty and staff homes 
that was lost? Incalculable.

How did the press refer to this fire? The Oakland-Berkeley Hills 
Fire: An Overview of October 20, 1991. "Sunday, October 20, will be 
remembered as the date of one of this nation's most costly fires; the 
worst fire involving loss of life and property since the Great San 
Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906. The magnitude and scope of 
what is simply referred to as the "Tunnel Fire" is far beyond the 
experience of any living American firefighter. Only those who fought 
the Chicago Fire last century or battled the Great Fire in San 
Francisco would be able to identify with this conflagration and 
firestorm."

Paul Lavely <lavelyp@uclink4.berkeley.edu>
UC Berkeley
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