User:Whymewhywhy/Xcel Company Fire

The Xcel Energy Company Fire occurred on October 2, 2007 The incident occurred at Excel Energy’s Hydropower Generation plant in Georgetown, Colorado, a small town forty-five miles west of Denver. This accident killed five workers and exposed the history of negligence of the independent contractor responsible.

The Plant
The plant, Georgetown Hydro, is a hydroelectric power generator built in 1906. The power plant runs two generators that when running at top performance can produce a total 1.2 megawatts of electrical power. The plant is powered by water pressure from the water released from the Georgetown Forebay, a body of water that is used to run equipment. The plant can draw additional water stored at the Clear Lake Reservoir. Because Georgetown Hydro is a hydroelectric plant, it only uses water as a fuel source meaning it gives off no land, water or air emissions. .

The plant is run remotely from another Xcel Energy power station at Cabin Creek, a facility five miles to the south. This means that the operators who run the plant are not on site and can control the output of the plant from the Cabin Creek site cutting down on the number of employees needed to run the plant.

The Georgetown plant is also open to the public as the Georgetown Energy Museum, where one can see a working power plant. The museum has many intriguing artifacts and pieces from the electrical industry. The museum also offers tours of the plant

Prior Events
The fire occurred on October 2, 2007 when a contracting construction crew was performing routine anti-corrosion maintenance on a water tunnel at the Xcel Energy hydroelectric plant in Georgetown Colorado. The team of workers was spreading an epoxy coating over to the walls of the water tunnel to help protect them from corrosion. The water tunnel provided the water to power the plant from two reservoirs and was 4,000 feet long, 12 feet wide and descended at a sharp angle. The epoxy being used was flammable and was ignited by the heated mixer used to mix the epoxy sealant.

The Explosion
This explosion of epoxy blocked the tunnel. After the epoxy ignited the workers were trapped 2600 feet from the open lower mouth of the tunnel. Four lucky workers were below the fire when it broke out, allowing them to escape out the bottom of the tunnel. The workers above the fire were uninjured in the explosion and maintained radio contact from noon until 3:30 pm. A rescue team of twenty men from a nearby mine, Henderson Mine, came to assist. The rescue attempt was hindered by the tunnel’s steep decline and the questionable air quality from the explosion. The rescuers found the bodies, at 8:00, 1,100 feet above where the workers were when radio contact was lost. The five workers all died of smoke inhalation.

Aftermath
The four surviving members were rushed to a Denver hospital where they were all treated and subsequently released. In recognition of the tragic event, Colorado state governor Bill Ritter traveled to Georgetown to meet with the families of the deceased. . The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board has launched an investigation into this incident. .

The Contractor
The contractor hired by Xcel Energy was a California firm called RPI Coating. All five workers who died in this incident were Californians. RPI Coating has had a long history of citations from both federal and state agencies. As it turns out the company had accumulated fines totaling $135,569 from ninety incidents since 1988. Most of the fines stemmed from unsafe working conditions such as the worker who was crushed by a work platform while working on the I-80 San Francisco Bay Bridge. These ninety incidents were accumulated while the company was operating under the name of Robison Prezioso Inc. Of the ninety fineable incidences, twenty-seven were violations considered serious by OSHA.