Fire at Iași combined heat and power plant, reportedly involving a transformer

What happened

Firefighters from Iași were called to a fire in an industrial hall on the premises of the Iași combined heat and power plant (CET). Flames were reported to be affecting the first floor over an area of about 1,000 square metres, in a hall of roughly 5,000 square metres. The county emergency situations inspectorate deployed seven intervention vehicles from two Iași firefighting detachments, including water and foam appliances, a rescue and height vehicle, a first-aid crew and a personnel transport vehicle.

The source headline reports that a transformer caught fire; the article body does not describe the transformer. The electricity supply was interrupted for the duration of the operations. At the time of reporting, no victims had been reported. The public was asked to avoid the area and keep their distance from electrical installations.

Contributing factors

Not reported. The source headline links the fire to a transformer, but the cause of the fire and of any transformer fault is not given.

Lessons learned

1. Transformers at generation sites need fire detection, oil containment and suppression systems that are tested on a fixed schedule.
2. Electrical equipment inside industrial halls should be separated by fire-rated barriers so that a fault in one unit does not spread to the floor above.
3. Operators should agree in advance with local fire services on access routes, isolation points and water supply for large indoor electrical fires.

More lessons on detection and monitoring, spacing, layout and fire spread, fire suppression and firefighting, from every incident on the register.

Source

informat.ro