Breaking: Explosion and Fire At Hoover Dam

27 Replies to “Breaking: Explosion and Fire At Hoover Dam”

1. Not good but likely just a transformer going boom

   1. That makes sense, as the fire was easily extinguished without the need of the fire dept.

      1. Insulation in a typical transformer is designed for 25 to 30 years life expectancy. Oil sampling for gas accumulation and insulation resistance testing can give information if the transformer is aging or has a problem, but sometime the insulation fails, an arc forms in the mineral oil between phases and you get the explosion. Utility companies try to extend the life of old transformers by changing the mineral oil and other measure to offset the cost of a new transformer. The infrastructure of modern society will break down if it is not regularly replaced.

         1. ” The infrastructure of modern society will break down if it is not regularly replaced. ”

            Or maintained to schedule.

2. Huh? A sudden epidemic of force majeure

   1. Old Joe Bitten is rumoured to address the “climate emergency”…Segway?

   2. Indeed. Who knew that 40C causes spontaneous combustion of London homes?

      https://youtu.be/TjBV4R18ICY

      The cells are being activated everywhere it seems.

3. FENRIS KEEP AWAY.
   Terrible machines and past life oaths to demons abound here…………

4. There is more going on than people believe is going on. NOTHING IS EVER AS IT SEEMS. Stupid people do not believe that.

   1. I think I will agree with you.

5. Chevy Chase?

6. Didn’t that YouTube guy ElectroBOOM say he was going to Vegas? That looks like his shtick.

7. Somebody tried to get a drink from a water fountain.

8. Possibly the result of the new woke school of civil engineering?

9. Hot Dam!!!!!

   1. Boooo!

10. Bring on the apocalypse. Pretty sure it will be the wokesters having the hardest time of it. I can survive nicely without power and supply chain.

    Enjoy the decline

11. If you could zero in through the smoke you might find a tesla or a chevy Volt.

12. 2 transformers in just a few days, what are the odds?

    1. When and where was the other?

       1. A stepdown/power supply transformer for a pumping station on the Keystone pipeline in the Dakotas.
          Sounds like it was sabotage, as the FBI was called in to the investigation.
          SDA had a post yesterday. Search for keyword Force Majeure

13. Curse that Black Jacques Shellac!

14. Pretty sure I saw this movie…..

    This is where Megatron is held and ties to get the allspark from the secret sector 7 base at area 52 hidden under the hoover dam.

15. Temperature is everything when dealing with transformers and it’s been very hot.
    https://www.myweather2.com/City-Town/United-States-Of-America/Nevada/Hoover-Dam.aspx

16. JD: What are the Odds?

    Pretty Damned Good. Transformers, especially Generator Output Transformers get stressed every Summer. Ask the folks at the Electrical industry organizations, like EPRI, FERC, NERC, INPO, etc. In the last twenty years we have added gas in oil monitors, accoustic monitors, bushing monitors, and other technology to try and detect transformer faults (BOOM!) before they happen.

    Predicting this used to be one of my jobs. I got out ten years ago. A buddy at DTE said they emptied their entire spare transformer yard one Summer in the early 2000’s.

    The bad part is not many people make these big high voltage transformers. When we needed one? Our choices were Europe, Israel, and Korea.

17. Fallout New Vegas cosplay?

18. SinCityOutdoors youtube channel has been covering the falling water level of Lake Mead, and a few weeks ago they were showing that the water was too low for the intakes to the power turbines. So the dam was not producing electricity. No electricity to start a fire?