VIDEO: A fire that ignited inside a wastewater treatment plant in west Phoenix on Thursday morning has been extinguished, as a contract worker is recovering from burn injuries. The fire was reported shortly after 9 a.m. at the City of Phoenix Wastewater Treatment Plant near 91st and Sunland avenues, south of Broadway Road.
According to city officials, a private maintenance crew was working at the facility when an underground fire sparked. Phoenix firefighters arrived on scene and found smoke coming from a tunnel 10 feet underground. “Crews found a small fire in what they call a digester tunnel. It’s where these pipes house all the recycling, all the sewage, all the wastewater, so you can get it back out and filter it,” said Phoenix Fire Capt. Todd Keller.
Workers were evacuated as a precaution, and one contractor was hospitalized with minor injuries. Capt. Keller says the contractor is in stable condition with superficial burns to his hands and face. No one else was hurt. “There was a contractor doing maintenance on it. The plant was evacuated, but one thing we want to say is that no services to the City of Phoenix, to the wastewater, has been affected,” Capt. Keller explained.
