Chesterfield Firefighters had their hands full on Sunday, Jan 15 when a Dominion Virginia Power Plant located at 500 Coxendale Road, had a 10 foot tall by 7 foot wide transformer blow and erupt into fire. The fire quickly esculated into a dangerous 3-alarm fire.
First Alarm-1712 hours, 4 engines,2 trucks
Second Alarm-1724 hours, 3 engines,1 truck
Third Alarm-1737 hours. 3 engines,1 truck
EMS support:
Medic 18,Medic 15,Bensley-Bermuda Rescue Squad
1739 hours:15 Bravo issued P19 (#155-Foam Unit Airport Station) was dispatched at the first alarm after first due arrived and did assessment.
Apparatus "on scene" by number (not in order of dispatch):
Engines -18(Rivers Bend),17(Centralia),14(Dutch Gap),1(Chester),6(Enon),15(Airport),11(Dale),3(Bensley),206(Enon)
Trucks - 3(Bensley),9(Buford),12(Ettrick),14(Dutch Gap)
Special - P19 (Airport Station #15)
Special - Mobile Command Center
EMS - Medic 18(Rivers Bend),15(Airport),Bensley Bermuda Volunteer Rescue Squad
Command - Battalion 2,Chief 3 and 7
TSO - Lt. Steve Traylor
Special - Logistics 3, Air Utility, PIO
Station Coverage: Chesterfield units: Engine 204 (Bon Air)covered #1(Chester) Engine 10(Wagstaff) covered #3(Bensley) Engine 16(Swift Creek) covered #15(Airport) Engine 205(Midlothian) covered #17(Centralia)
Richmond Fire department providing coverage for Chesterfield: Engine 17(Southside:Bainbridge Street) covered #11(Dale) Quint 21(Southside:Jeff Davis Station) covered #3(Bensley)
Henrico Fire Division providing coverage for Chesterfield: Battalion Chief Floyd Greene,Jr Engine 9(Quiocassin Road),Truck 12(West End Drive) covered #14 (Dutch Gap) and Engine 18(Darbytown Road) covered #18 (Rivers Bend)
Summary: Transformer blew,erupted into fire. Fire extended to nearby building partially onto roof. Flames were reported as extending 60 to 80 ft in the air. Around 1,000 gallons of water on the building fire,transformer fire was foamed by 60 gallons of 3% National Universal.
Fire was marked under control at 1956 hours.
Transformer contained 1600 gallons of mineral oil. No spills into nearby river were documented. No environmental hazards were documented.
Tranformer was powering into the plant,therefore no customers lost power. Chesterfield Fire Marshals are not investigating,Dominion Virginia Power's is conducting the investigation.
At 2119 hours the 15 Bravo cancelled.
No firefighter or civilian injuries were reported.
Possible cause:Circuit Breaker failure,investigation is ongoing.
