Dive Brief:
- A fire broke out at Duke Energy’s 1133-MW Bartow power plant in St. Petersburg, Florida early Monday morning, knocking three of four transformers out of commission.
- The fire appears to have started just after midnight in a steam turbine transformer, although exact details of the cause of the fire are still unknown.
- Fire crews from St. Petersburg Fire Rescue said that a 300 gallon oil reservoir by the transformer spilled and also caught fire. A third fire broke out after sparks were sucked into an air intake and set a large paper filter alight.
Dive Insight:
There were no power outages or injuries caused by the fire, although two further transformers were forced to shut down due to health and safety concerns.
Duke Energy spokesman Sterling Ivey said the damage done by the fire has “not affected our ability to generate electricity for customers.”