Hoover Dam explosion captured in terrifying video
An explosion has rocked the Hoover Dam in Nevada with thick black smoke seen billowing from the historic landmark.
An explosion has rocked the Hoover Dam, with thick black smoke seen billowing from the historic landmark.
Footage posted on social media showed a giant fireball rising at the Nevada monument on Tuesday morning (local time).
The Boulder City Police Department confirmed it had units en route to the scene following an explosion, The Sun reports.
A tourist visiting the site captured a video showing the fire may have occurred in a building near the dam’s base.
A second video on Twitter showed sirens blaring as visitors watched the fire from a bridge overlooking the dam.
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The Boulder City Fire Department said the blaze was extinguished before units arrived on the scene.
The US Bureau of Reclamation confirmed that the A5 transformer at Hoover Dam caught fire at approximately 10.30am local time.
No injuries to visitors or employees were reported.
Regional director Jacklynn L. Gould said there was no risk to the power grid.
Tours of the dam were paused for about 30 minutes at the time of the fire and have since resumed, 8NewsNow reported.
Hydro-electric landmark
Built between 1931 and 1936 during the Great Depression, the Hoover Dam was constructed to provide irrigation water and hydro-electric power and to control the Colorado River’s seasonal flooding.
The landmark is one of the nation’s largest hydro-electric facilities, generating on average about four billion kilowatt-hours of hydro-electric power each year.
The generated electricity is enough to serve more than 1.3 million people across Nevada, Arizona and California.
There are 17 main turbines in the dam, with nine on the Arizona wing and eight in the Nevada wing.
The structure was named Hoover Dam in honour of then-president Herbert Hoover, who led negotiations for the 1922 Colorado River Compact that apportioned the river’s waters between the upper and lower basins.
The concrete-arch gravity dam captures water from the Colorado River and fills Lake Mead.
This story originally appeared on The Sun and is republished here with permission
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