A small explosion at the base of Nevada’s Hoover Dam on Tuesday morning sparked a fire that was quickly extinguished, local officials and witnesses said. There were no reports of injuries.
The incident happened shortly after 10am on Tuesday when an explosion occurred in the turbine house near the base of the dam. It was followed by a fire, which sent a large plume of black smoke into the sky.
Sirens wailed minutes after the explosion as tourists were evacuated from the site, but the fire was quickly extinguished with no injuries. There is no threat to the structure of the dam.
“At approximately 10 a.m. PDT, transformer A5 at the Hoover Dam caught fire and was extinguished by [the fire brigade] at approximately 10:30 a.m.,” the Bureau of Reclamation said in a statement. “There is no risk to the power grid. Power is still being generated from the power plant.”
The statement said the cause of the explosion is still under investigation.
The Hoover Dam, which was built in the early 1930s, impounds Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the US. Its generators provide power for public and private utilities in Nevada, Arizona and California. It is also a major tourist attraction.
BREAKING: Small explosion and fire at Hoover Dam; unknown cause pic.twitter.com/Y2YfPVvGaH
— BNO News (@BNONews) July 19, 2022
Firefighters putting out the fire (Credit: Bureau of Reclamation)
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