Firefighters were called to a coal dust fire in the early hours of Tuesday morning at the Aurora Energy power plant in Fairbanks, AK, according to local news reports and information from the local fire department.
Crews from several fire departments responded to the 1st Avenue facility at about 12:30 a.m. and worked for several hours to douse the flames, the City of Fairbanks Fire Department said in a statement posted to Facebook. The scene was cleared later that morning. Another small fire broke out inside the facility on February 16. Television news station KTVF said that fire personnel were able to extinguish the fire within 20 or 30 minutes. A fire official said that coal dust may have fueled that blaze.
Aurora Energy provides power to residences and businesses in central Fairbanks through a 15-mile-long network of subterranean pipes that move hot water and steam heat. According to information on its website, the firm’s power generation plant uses about 210,000 tn/yr of coal for its boiler.