Billows Of Smoke Rise From Hoover Dam As Massive Explosion Rocks Landmark

A fire and explosion were reported at the Hoover Dam in Nevada on Tuesday (19 July), with dark smoke seen billowing into the air. 

Taking to Twitter at around 1.11pm local time, writer Kristy Hairston was filming her tour of the dam when she ‘heard an explosion’. 

Shortly afterwards, the city of Boulder tweeted: “Boulder City Fire Department is en route to an emergency call at Hoover Dam. No further information is available at this time.”

A second witness could be heard in Kristy’s video saying: “My goodness, something has just blown up.”

Boulder City said on Twitter just before 2:00pm that ‘the fire was extinguished before Boulder City Fire Department arrived on scene’.

The Bureau for Reclamation told UNILAD in a statement: “At approximately 10:00am PDT, the A5 transformer at Hoover Dam caught fire and was extinguished by the Reclamation/Hoover fire brigade at approximately 10:30am PDT. 

“There are no injuries to visitors or employees. There is no risk to the power grid and power is still being generated from the powerhouse. We are investigating the cause of the fire and will provide additional updates as they are available.”

The Hoover Dam sits in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, which straddles US states Nevada and Arizona.

Built to provide water and hydroelectric power for the developing Southwest while also taming the Colorado River, the dam was the largest in the world at the time of its completion in 1935.

To this day, it remains the highest concrete arch dam in the US and despite still being used for flood control, hydroelectric power, agricultural irrigation and domestic water supply, it’s also a world-renowned sightseeing destination, attracting seven million viewers a year. 

The dam stands at 221 metres high and at its crest is 379 metres long. It’s packed with a whopping 3,360,000 cubic metres of concrete.

The dam is named after former president Herbert Hoover. It was during Hoover’s administration that construction on the dam started.

During Hoover’s stint as commerce secretary in the 1920s, he secured the agreements necessary for the construction of the dam to go ahead. 

In total, the Hoover Dam took five years to construct and can provide water to more than two million acres of land and power over one million homes.

In 1985 it was designated a National Historic Landmark and in 1994 became one of America’s Seven Modern Civil Engineering Wonders.

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