Hoover Dam explosion: A look at what’s happened so far
Equipment failure caused a transformer at the Hoover Dam to explode, causing a fire that lasted about a half-hour and sending plumes of black smoke swirling through the air.
Crews quickly extinguished the fire Tuesday morning. Doug Hendrix, public affairs specialist for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, emphasized that the fire was isolated to the single area, which limited damage to the facility, and that investigators would soon know what caused it. “We’ve got engineers and some of our senior leadership down there taking a look now, also with some inspectors to see exactly what happened,” Hendrix told KTNV in Las Vegas.
Hendrix did not respond Wednesday to emails from The Associated Press. Read more: Hoover Dam transformer explodes, sparks brief fire but no injuries Hoover Dam, about 40 kilometers southeast of Las Vegas on the Nevada-Arizona border, is one of the tallest concrete dams in the U.S.
at 221 meters. It supplies hydroelectric power for about 350,000 homes in Arizona, California and Nevada. To create hydropower, a renewable energy source, water from the Colorado River flows into the dam, then into a pipe, which spins into a generator that ultimately creates electricity, before it goes into the transformer.
United States
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Cases: 46 252 513
Deaths: 750 423
Recovered: 0
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India
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Cases: 34 321 025
Deaths: 459 652
Recovered: 0
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Brazil
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Cases: 21 835 785
Deaths: 608 235
Recovered: 0
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United Kingdom
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Cases: 9 215 683
Deaths: 141 607
Recovered: 0
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Russia
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Cases: 8 494 589
Deaths: 237 619
Recovered: 0
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