No injuries after transformer catches fire at Hoover Dam
LAS VEGAS (KSNV/TND) — No one was injured when a transformer at Hoover Dam briefly caught fire Tuesday morning, officials said.
“There are no injuries to visitors or employees. There is no risk to the power grid and power is still being generated from the powerhouse,” Jacklynn L. Gould, the Bureau of Reclamation's regional director for the Lower Colorado Region, said in a news release. "We are investigating the cause of the fire and will provide additional updates as they are available."
Gould said the fire started around 10 a.m. and was put out less than an hour later.
Reports began circulating online Tuesdayafter a video was posted on Twitter showing an area of the dam on fire during the mid-morning hours. A huge plume of black smoke swirled above the building.
The Boulder City Fire Department said it initially responded to the scene, KSNV reports. The City of Boulder said the fire was extinguished before the fire department arrived. Officials said theBureau of Reclamation and the Hoover Dam would handle additional questions. "No further information is available at this time.," a tweet from Boulder city officials said.
The cause of Tuesday's fire is under investigation.
The National Historic Landmark is situated in the Black Canyon on the Colorado River, and is as tall as a 60-story building, according to the National Park Service. Construction started in 1931 and was completed in 1935. Its purpose was to allow floodwaters from the United States' largest man-made lake to flow in a controlled manner, saving California and Arizona from the disastrous flooding the Colorado River was famous for at the time.
Its base is as thick as two football fields are long.The amount of concrete used in building it was enough to pave a road stretching from San Francisco to New York City, NPS reports. Building the mammoth structure provided unprecedented challenges. By the time the work was completed,96 of the 21,000 men who worked on it died construction.
The amount of water the dam holds back in the lake, when full, can cover the whole state of Connecticut 10 feet deep.
As many as 20,000 vehicles a day drive across the 45-foot (14-meter) wide top of the dam, which is a National Historic Landmark.
