A screenshot of the video posted to Twitter. Photo via Twitter user Kristy Hairston.
The Boulder City Fire Department responded to an emergency at the Hoover Dam as videos on social media showed a large explosion and fire there. One video posted to Twitter shows an explosion occurring at the bottom of the dam. The video, shot from the top of the dam, shows a fire on the bottom portion of the dam pumping dark smoke into the air. A TikTok video from another angle shows much of the same.
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“Folks get your phones on this,” a man says in the Twitter video. “There has just been an incident, a fire or an explosion.” “Something has just blown up,” responds another person. “Yup,” the man responds and tells the people they need to leave the area. The Boulder City Fire Department said the fire was put out by the time they got there.“The fire was extinguished before our fire fighters arrived on the scene,” department spokesperson Lisa LaPlante told VICE News.Bureau of Reclamation Regional Director Jacklynn Gould said in a statement Tuesday afternoon that the billowing smoke seen in the viral videos was caused by an A5 transformer that caught fire at approximately 10 a.m. local time. Gould said that no one was injured by the fire and there was no damage to the power grid. The bureau is currently investigating.