Turbine fire quickly extinguished
Credit: By Dustin Luca, Staff Writer | The Salem News | www.salemnews.com ~~
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IPSWICH – A wind turbine by the transfer station burned for more than an hour before the fire department was called to intervene, and the closest hydrant was far out of reach once trucks finally rolled down Town Farm Road.
But neither of those problems complicated the situation, and the electrical fire was quick and easy to put out, fire Chief Andy Theriault said.
“Someone saw smoke in the turbine, and by the time we got the phone call, it was a good hour, hour and a half,” Theriault said. “We had the call at 1:37 p.m., and probably by 1400 hours (2 p.m.), the fire was all under control.”
The fire was tied to electrical equipment in the base of a privately owned wind turbine behind the transfer station, he said. Another turbine on the opposite end of the site is owned by the town.
Someone at the site spotted the fire much earlier, but Theriault said that person only called the company who owns the turbine. The name of the company wasn’t immediately available Thursday afternoon.
It took more than an hour for a maintenance crew to get to the scene from Wilmington, Theriault said.
“Once the gentleman from the maintenance company got there, he found there was smoke,” the chief said. “That’s when we got the call.”
As crews arrived, the closest hydrant was reported as 110 Town Farm Road, which is a ways down the road.
But because of how confined the fire was and the evident lack of things to burn, the fire didn’t take much water to extinguish.
“It was all contained to electrical equipment inside the turbine, no other extension,” Theriault said.
There’s no indication the fire was suspicious, he said.
“Those things are locked up pretty good,” he said.
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