Schkopau, Germany – A fireโฃ at โthe Schkopau power plant in โthe Saale district of Saxony-Anhaltโข is now under control, though 50 firefighters remain on site searching for embers in coal dust as of Friday morning, according to Districtโฃ Fire Chief Marcus Heller. The fire,which began as a โsmoldering incident in Block Aโข on Thursday morning and escalated into an open fire aroundโ 2:30 p.m., required a peak deployment of 170 firefighters.
The difficulty in extinguishing the blazeโฃ stemmed from the combustible coal dust, necessitating the use of large amounts of foam. Whileโ the cause โof the fire remains unclear, power plant โขspokesmanโ Torsten Hรถpfl โconfirmed it is indeed contained to the brown coal power plant site and is unrelated to the nearby Dow chemical plant.โ No injuries have been reported, and employees โand local residentsโ wereโฃ not at โฃrisk.
Theโข schkopau power plant,โค operated by Saale Energie,โ was taken offline for โขsafety reasons. Plant manager Enrico Munder stated it is indeed currently uncertain โwhen operations โคwill resume, but assured the regional electricity โขsupply is not threatened, with power being sourced from other facilities. The Saaleโฃ Energie website experienced disruptions beginning Thursday evening and remains inaccessible.