A towering wind turbine went up in flames Friday at a wind farm located at the edge of a southern Nova Scotia community.
The West Pubnico fire department responded just after 5 p.m. to monitor the rotating blades and make sure flaming debris did not start additional fires on the ground.
Amiro lives a few kilometres away from the wind farm and said he arrived about five minutes after the call. The tower, which he estimated at over 90 metres tall, was "all aflame."Firefighters were unable to get close enough to put the fire out directly because of the turbine's height and movement of the blades -- and it couldn't be turned off with the gearbox on fire.
The department was stationed a few hundred metres away, watching as material burned off and fell from the turbine, advising curious onlookers from the nearby residential area to keep away.He said the incident could have been worse in summer or early fall when the dry ground is more flammable. Amiro said the fire was the first he had heard of at the wind farm since it started providing power in the mid-2000s but research suggests fires are a surprisingly common yet underreported challenge facing the wind farm industry.
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