Fire shuts down highway south of Kennewick at shooting range

Gunfire may have sparked a fire south of Kennewick Wednesday afternoon. Benton County firefighters were called out to a fire near the Kennewick Shooting Range, that spread over 400 acres near Locust Grove Road.

Crews shut down Hwy 397 between I-82 to Olympia street because of the smoke and fire, which spread across difficult rural terrain, with very few roads for firetrucks to go down. The winds have also not helped firefighters put out the flames, and they used some back burning technicians to control it.

Some off-duty officers told us that they had just wrapped up a live-fire exercise at a gun range near the rock quarry on Locust Grove Road when they noticed the smoke.