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SYDNEY - An explosion rocked a New South Wales Central Coast power station yesterday, sparking a major fire and forcing the evacuation of up to 150 employees.
Six fire crews took almost three hours to extinguish the blaze at Delta Electricity's Vales Point power station south of Newcastle.
Workers had to be evacuated from the coal-fired power station after a transformer exploded at 12.25pm, said Glenn Lockhart, from the NSW Fire Brigades. Ambulance crews and a rescue helicopter were put on standby, but no injuries were reported and all personnel on-site were accounted for. Fears were held for an adjacent transformer but crews contained the fire.
The power station is located at the southern end of Lake Macquarie. Purpose-built retention ponds around the station managed to capture all of the oil from the blown transformer. Operations were under way to cool the hot oil, and fire and Delta investigators would try to determine the cause of the explosion and fire.
- AAP
