Crews quickly extinguished the fire Tuesday morning. Doug Hendricks, a public affairs specialist for the US Bureau of Recovery, said the fire was contained to a single area, which limited the damage to the facility, and that investigators will soon learn what caused it. “We have engineers and some of our senior management down there taking a look now, also with some inspectors to see exactly what happened,” Hendricks told KTNV in Las Vegas. Hendrix did not respond Wednesday to an email from The Associated Press.

		Read more: Hoover Dam transformer explodes, sparks brief fire but no injuries

What is Hoover Dam?

The Hoover Dam, about 40 kilometers southeast of Las Vegas on the Nevada-Arizona border, is one of the tallest concrete dams in the US at 221 meters. It supplies hydropower for about 350,000 homes in Arizona, California and Nevada. Story continues below ad To create hydroelectric power, a renewable energy source, water from the Colorado River flows into the dam, then into a pipe, which spins in a generator that ultimately creates electricity, before going to the transformer.

What happened?

An explosion occurred shortly after 10 a.m. Tuesday at one of the dam’s 17 transformers that generate electricity. The explosion caused a thick cloud of black smoke and flames which was caught on the visitor’s camera, but was extinguished by fire crews within half an hour. Officials said equipment inside the transformer failed, causing the fire, but have not yet said what caused the equipment to fail. There were no injuries.

Where is the research?

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The investigation into the details of what caused the fire is ongoing with no specific timeline for its findings, Michelle Helms, public relations officer for the Bureau of Recovery, said in an emailed statement to the AP. “These investigations take some time,” he said. 0:47 Police respond after gun-wielding man blocks himself in truck near Hoover Dam Police respond after gun-wielding man blocks himself in truck near Hoover Dam – June 15, 2018

Is the dam power down?

Officials have not said how much power generation was lost. Story continues below ad Hendricks told KTNV that the power grid is not affected because the fire was contained to one transformer 17 in total _ and remained contained until fire crews extinguished it. “All of our protective gear went in immediately, so it was isolated to that (transformer),” Hendrix told the TV station. “So we were very lucky.”

What is a transformer?

All power plants have transformers, which are primarily used to step up the voltage of the electricity produced for sending through transmission lines, said Jordan Kern, an assistant professor of natural resources at the University of North Carolina. “And then when the electricity gets to about where it’s going to be consumed, we use another set of transformers to step down the voltage of the electricity,” Kern said, “and then that electricity is sent through the distribution lines that are insulated and working. in public houses, businesses, etc.” Hoover Dam has 17 transformers – nine on the Nevada side and eight on the Arizona side. The fire was extinguished at the fifth transformer of Arizona.

How rare is a power plant fire?

A fire at a power plant is rare, though there is always a risk, Kern said. “I think more often than not it’s other electrical equipment” that can start a fire in an electrical facility, he said. “It’s not the transformers themselves that cause the fires.” Story continues below ad “But you can imagine there’s just a huge amount of electrical cable in power stations. And if there’s any malfunctioning equipment that ignites a fire, I think it can then spread.” © 2022 The Canadian Press