Fire contained one mile from Trans-Alaska Pipeline near Livengood

A wildfire ignited within one mile of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline near Livengood on July 4, burning half an acre in spruce, hardwoods, and brush before smokejumpers and aircraft fully contained it the same day, the U.S. Wildland Fire Service said.

The Ready Bullion Fire burned just east of the Elliott Highway at milepost 74, in a remote Interior corridor where the pipeline runs south from the North Slope toward Fairbanks and Valdez. Eight smokejumpers, three single-engine water-scooping planes, and an air attack plane responded. The fire was smoldering and creeping when crews arrived. Smokejumpers were scheduled to conduct one more hotspot search on July 5 before declaring the fire out, according to the U.S. Wildland Fire Service, which said the July 4 update was the final one barring unforeseen changes in fire activity.

The Trans-Alaska Pipeline, operated by Alyeska Pipeline Service Company, is the state's primary oil-transport corridor. The fire burned within about one mile of the pipeline, east of the Elliott Highway near milepost 74. Pipeline and oil-and-gas workers in the corridor face wildfire exposure every summer fire season.

Pipeline Safety and Buffer Zones

Some pipeline-safety advocates have argued that buffer-zone standards around hazardous liquid pipelines are not strong enough to protect infrastructure from fire and other hazards, noting that narrower setbacks leave less room for emergency response. The Pipeline Safety Trust has pointed to setback rules as an area needing expansion. The federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration reached an oversight agreement with Alaska in 2011 that the agency described as the first of its kind in the state, intended to close inspection gaps between production and transmission systems.