Apparent turbine fire at Lynemouth wind farm, north-east England

What happened

ScottishPower Renewables said it was aware of an incident at its Lynemouth wind farm near Ashington in north-east England and was carrying out a full investigation with its contractor. Images posted on social media earlier in the week showed a single turbine that appeared to have burned. According to the online images, the nacelle and hub were largely destroyed, while the blades, though heavily damaged, remained attached to the hub.

The source said local fire services were not immediately available to comment. ScottishPower Renewables did not give further details of the incident. The wind farm is reported to use 13 Gamesa 2MW turbines and to have entered service in 2012. The date of the fire and its cause were not stated in the source.

Contributing factors

Not reported. The cause of the fire had not been established at the time of the report.

Lessons learned

1. Turbine fires can destroy the nacelle and hub quickly, so operators should maintain fire detection and suppression systems in nacelles and test them regularly.
2. Operators should agree emergency response arrangements with local fire services in advance, including access to turbines at height, since fire services may not be immediately available to respond or to give information.
3. Where an incident occurs, operators should publish timely, factual updates and commit to a full investigation with the contractor, so that stakeholders understand the status while the cause is still unknown.

More lessons on structural integrity and turbines, fire suppression and firefighting, worker safety and safe systems of work, from every incident on the register.

Source

reNEWS (renews.biz)