Explosion east of Power Plant Fort Saint Vrain

[montanadiesel]

Explosion call going out east of Fort Sait Vrain, in Weld County. Units are currently getting paged to investigate.

 

[montanadiesel]

Fire has arrived on scene of the Excel power plant at Fort St Vrain. They do confirm that there are flames visible and this is located on the east side of the plant, where there is some new construction going on.

 

[jimmnn]

Sounds like building is empty at least and fire suppression system is working.

Jim<

 

[montanadiesel]

Sounds like Excel energy has requested to fight fire with their own system, so all fire equipment is currently staging and setting up in case Excel's system fails.

 

[montanadiesel]

Interesting twist to the usual fire calls.

 

[jimmnn]

Fort St. Vrain Generating Station (FSV, formerly known as the Fort St. Vrain Nuclear Generating Station) is a natural gas-powered electrical generating facility located near the town of Platteville in northern Colorado in the United States.

http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Fort-St.-Vrain-Generating-Station

 

[montanadiesel]

Father in law helped build and run this location, back in the day. Have had the opportunity to get a tour of this location, a couple years back prior to start-up with current config. Interesting while touring, saw some folks that I worked with from Rocky Flats, that had moved over there within the Department of Energy group.

Sorry, that is all a side note.

 

[montanadiesel]

Looks like the callout for large amounts of foam for this situation. Gilcrest and Platteville are not setup for this large of an event it looks like.

 

[montanadiesel]

I should of stated that last comment differently. It looks as if Excel was not prepared for this large of an event. Gillcrest and Platteville are doing fine.

 

[montanadiesel]

Sounds like the Fire Department is now working this fire, and Class C foam is on the way from Johnstown. Report just came in that they now have zero flames showing.

 

[jimmnn]

WELD COUNTY - A transformer being tested for a unit at the Fort St. Vrain Generating Station caught on fire Friday night.

Xcel Energy says the transformer that caught fire was supposed to be for a unit under construction at the plant near Platteville. The transformer contains approximately 13,000 gallons of mineral insulating oil.

The fire started around 6 p.m. Firefighters were able to put out the fire at 7:30 p.m.

Another new unit was shut down as a precautionary measure.

No one was hurt and no one lost power because of the fire.