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The Stafford city power plant sustained over $1Million in damage and sent two employees to the hospital with minor injuries from a fire that started just after 3 p.m., last Thursday.
The plant lost one of its five generator motors, suffered some severely scored walls, and damage to one of the offices in the building, but quick work by two employees may have made it less of a disaster than it could have been.
“It could have been a heck of a lot worse than it was,” said Stafford city manager Jerry McMillian. “It did a lot of damage the way it was.”
According to McMillian the damage to the plant is probably in excess of $1 million. The number one generator is completely destroyed along with some support systems. McMillian said the number two engine got close to some extreme heat during the fire so they were not going to run it until Siemens, (the manufacturer) has a chance to come out and look at it.
The cause of the fire has not been definitely determined, but McMillian said they think something in the motor let go breaking the diesel supply line and igniting the fire. Stafford fired up its generating plant, as did St. John, at the request of Midwest Energy to supplement some of the load on the grid.
“Everything fired up and was running good,” McMillian said. “Our power plant foreman had just checked all the gauges and readings and everything was okay so him and the other power plant employee stepped into the office for a minute when something came uncorked in the number one motor.”
Plant employees Larry Sanders and Shawn Burgey suffered minor injuries of smoke inhalation and first degree burns as they tried to contain the fire and shut off the flow of diesel fuel.
Both were treated and released from Stafford County Hospital
McMillian said his employees about had the fire out when the Stafford fire department arrived on scene. Police chief Doug Brown credited the two for saving what could have been a bad situation.
“The storage tanks for the diesel fuel are located under those motors,” he said. “If that had caught fire it might have been a different story.”
The Stafford city power plant sustained over $1Million in damage and sent two employees to the hospital with minor injuries from a fire that started just after 3 p.m., last Thursday.
The plant lost one of its five generator motors, suffered some severely scored walls, and damage to one of the offices in the building, but quick work by two employees may have made it less of a disaster than it could have been.
“It could have been a heck of a lot worse than it was,” said Stafford city manager Jerry McMillian. “It did a lot of damage the way it was.”
According to McMillian the damage to the plant is probably in excess of $1 million. The number one generator is completely destroyed along with some support systems. McMillian said the number two engine got close to some extreme heat during the fire so they were not going to run it until Siemens, (the manufacturer) has a chance to come out and look at it.
The cause of the fire has not been definitely determined, but McMillian said they think something in the motor let go breaking the diesel supply line and igniting the fire. Stafford fired up its generating plant, as did St. John, at the request of Midwest Energy to supplement some of the load on the grid.
“Everything fired up and was running good,” McMillian said. “Our power plant foreman had just checked all the gauges and readings and everything was okay so him and the other power plant employee stepped into the office for a minute when something came uncorked in the number one motor.”
Plant employees Larry Sanders and Shawn Burgey suffered minor injuries of smoke inhalation and first degree burns as they tried to contain the fire and shut off the flow of diesel fuel.
Both were treated and released from Stafford County Hospital
McMillian said his employees about had the fire out when the Stafford fire department arrived on scene. Police chief Doug Brown credited the two for saving what could have been a bad situation.
“The storage tanks for the diesel fuel are located under those motors,” he said. “If that had caught fire it might have been a different story.”
