PORTSMOUTH - Eight city firefighters were injured fighting a Tuesday morning fire inside a new ash containment facility at Public Services of New Hampshire's Schiller Station.
Four of the firefighters suffered first or second degree steam burns, with the other four treated for heat exhaustion, said Cpt. Bernie Marvin.
The fire was contained inside PSNH's new "baghouse," built to catch and contain particulates released during wood and coal burning and part of Schiller Station's new $70 million plant upgrade.
Portmsouth Fire Chief Chris LeClaire gives a statement to members of the media about a fire in the "bag house" at Schiller Station Tueday. Photo by Rich Beauchesne.
At the scene Tuesday morning, Fire Chief Christopher LeClaire reported two of his firefighters with first degree burns around their face masks from steam released by 500-degree coal ash in the building. A third was similarly burned on his arm, said the fire chief, who declined to identify the injured.
"It's very, very hot," said LeClaire of the baghouse, which contains 20-foot bags to catch particulates from the burning process in a new adjacent boiler.
By day's end, Marvin was reporting the eight injured, all of whom were transported to Portsmouth Regional Hospital and expected to be released by this morning. He too declined to identify those firefighters.
"In house fires, we can ventilate," said LeClaire, citing the challenge of containing the PSNH fire in the closed, metal baghouse.
An early morning fire was contained to the "bag house" at the Schiller Station in Portsmouth Tuesday morning.
Deputy Chief Steven Griswold said the cause will be investigated but he had no reason to believe it was anything but accidental. Griswold said PSNH employees had been adjusting the new equipment "getting it ready to go online."
PSNH spokesman Kathleen Lewis said the new equipment has not yet been used to burn wood, was being tested with coal and had not been used since Saturday.
Emergency personnel were called from Hampton, Dover, Newington, New Castle and Rye, to help at the scene and cover Portsmouth fire stations during the July 25 PSNH call. Exeter EMTs were on standby at the power station gate to assist.
Schiller Station General Manager Dick Despins said he had "no idea" of the extent of the damage to the new technology, but assured it would not affect power service to PSNH customers because it was confined to the new wood/coal burner.
