After what some described as a loud explosion at TVA’s John Sevier Fossil Plant, fire crews arrived and battled an electrical fire.
"It was a mechanical failure of some sort. We're trying to find out what exactly caused the fire," said TVA Spokesman Scott Brooks.
Rogersville Fire Chief David Jackson says he's never seen anything like this in his thirty years in the fire department.
"When we arrived on scene, and the entry team made entry, which was a 10 man entry team, the visibility was very poor on an account of a lot of heavy smoke - it was electrical smoke," said Jackson.
He says the firefighters faced several hurdles in battling the smoke and small fire.
"It made it a little more difficult due to the fact that each line had to be approximately 750 feet long to reach the fire from where we had to enter the building at."
He also says the crews had to be careful, because over 4000 volts of electricity were still running through the panel.
“You have to be sure that you take all precautions to make sure that your nozzle is on fire pattern because the droplets of water won't conduct electricity as would a solid stream," Jackson said.
Brooks said that the fire was contained to unit four, and the unit was shut down.
The plant is still continuing its day to day operations.
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