Tomago: Exclusion zone, evacuations as electrical emergency unfolds

A fire too hot to fight with water has broken out at a power regeneration plant, with specialist firefighters saying they had never responded to an incident like this in Australian history.

Authorities are working to contain and extinguish a fire at a NSW renewables plant, with specialist firefighters saying they’ve never responded to an incident like this before.

Around 5.20am this morning, staff at Tomago’s MGA Thermal were ordered to evacuate after a thermal exchange machine heated up “significantly” and reached dangerous temperatures.

Emergency services quickly put an 800 metre exclusion zone in place, and evacuated 15 nearby businesses due to explosion fears.

Fire and Rescue NSW Chief Superintendent Scott Dodson said the renewable energy plant was in its trial phase, and that adding water to the machine presented serious danger due to the aluminium graphite inside it.

“It has overheated from 700 degrees to around 1200 degrees,” he said.

“Initially we did have fears of explosion but working with the onsite engineers and our Fire and Rescue NSW scientific officer, we identified water was inappropriate to use so we’re looking at other extinguisher mediums to cool it down.”

It’s the first time in the country Fire and Rescue crews have responded to an incident like this.

“This is a trial plant that has been in its commissioning process and we haven’t seen anything like this before, but the company managing it has been excellent in supporting fire and rescue,” Mr Dodson explained.

Police have established an exclusion zone near the town. Picture: Sean Wright

Specialist crews are on their way to Tomago from Sydney. File picture

“We’re working with engineers to try and introduce nitrogen to the system to reduce the temperature of the plant.”

“Our crews are constantly monitoring and we are also doing atmospheric monitoring of the area to ensure safety of the community and those readings have come back with zero results.”

The thermal exchange machine essentially heats up bricks which are turned to steam. A spokesperson for MGA Thermal said the company was working closely with emergency service to ensure any risk was contained, but noted the bricks did not pose the same level of risk as lithium batteries.

“The heat blocks are not comparable to lithium batteries – they are designed to generate heat via steam like traditional coal-fired power plants,” the spokesperson said.

“The heat blocks operate through thermal dynamics, not chemical reactions. This means they do not pose the same explosion risk as batteries.”

Fire and Rescue is also working with the EPA and SafeWork NSW to ensure the emergency is investigated properly.

Superintendent Dodson said Fire and Rescue were confident of reducing the exclusion zone in the “near future” and opening roads shortly.