Five people were injured in a blast and fire at a Milwaukee area power plant. Brian McNulty is a spokesman for WE Energies, owner of the Oak Creek power plant were an explosion occurred about 11:00 Tuesday morning in a coal dust collecting silo, where contract workers were working. "They were setting up some scaffolding, getting ready to make some repairs inside the silo, and as they were setting up the scaffolding, and explosion occurred," says McNulty. "Five individuals that we know of were injured, four of which we believe to be critical." An initial press release from WE Energies indicated six were injured. All the injured were taken to Milwaukee area hospitals.
McNulty says the silo is designed with blast doors. Oak Creek Assistant Fire Chief Tom Rosenditch says those doors worked as designed to contain the blast and fire. "We took care of the patients first," says Rosenditch. "It (the fire) was all contained inside that structure . . . but it took us over an hour to bring the fire under control." Rosenditch says firefighters and EMTs faced a very fluid situation at the scene, with injured workers to be assessed and triaged while the fire was being brought under control. McNulty says an investigation into the cause of the explosion is underway.
