A fire at the Jamestown Board of Public Utilities power plant was extinguished after an hour-long battle Wednesday.
According to Dave Leathers, the general manager of the BPU, a suspected hydraulic leak led to the blaze that was contained in a diversionary unit which was pumping exhaust from the powerplant's gas turbine up the adjacent smoke stack.
The fire forced the Jamestown Fire Department to call in 12 off-shift firefighters and request assistance from the Lakewood Fire Department and the Chautauqua County HazMat Team.
Article Photos
Firefighters sprayed more than 300 lbs of dry chemical on the blaze to extinguish it Wednesday afternoon.
P-J Photo by Robert Rizzuto
BPU officials shut down the gas turbine within minutes of the firefighters' arrival and no injuries were reported in the incident. Power in the BPU service area was not affected, Leathers said.
Traffic was detoured away from Steele Street and cause a major hang-up in the already congested Brooklyn Square area, as the incident happened shortly before 5 p.m. when many people are heading home from work. The congestion reportedly caused issues for responding HazMat officials trying to get thorough the stand-still traffic and get to the scene.
A complete story can be found in Thursday's edition of The Post-Journal.