Iconic Hoover Dam rocked by explosion, causing fire to break out

The A5 transformer at the Hoover Dam suffered an explosion and caught fire at approximately 10 a.m. local time on July 19th, 2022.

The Reclamation/Hoover fire brigade managed to extinguish the blaze by about 10:30 a.m. before Boulder City Fire Department firefighters arrived on the scene. No employees or visitors were injured due to the incident, and the cause of the fire is still being investigated. The transformers on-site are responsible for changing the voltage of electricity at the hydroelectric plant.

The United States Bureau of Reclamation noted that there is no risk from the event posed to the power grid, and power generation was not interrupted. The federal government built the Hoover Dam in the 1930s during the Great Depression. It produces three terawatt-hours of electricity per year while holding back Lake Mead, the largest-capacity reservoir in the United States. The dam is a popular tourist attraction; around seven million tourists visit each year.