Wet coal blamed for fire at Jasper Power Plant

Tuesday morning a fire was reported at the Jasper Power Plant. Jasper Fire Department responded to the call that coal in the coal hopper was smoldering.

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Bud Hauersperger, General Manager of Utilities, stated the power plant employees had noticed a smell in the plant but it was attributed to new power poles that had been delivered the day before. The smell continued increasing in intensity propelling the employees to further investigate the plant. They then discovered the smoldering coal in the hopper.

The fire department was notified and they soon arrived, assessed the scene, and had the power plant evacuated. They then used thermal imaging to find hot spots in the plant and attempted to douse the spots with water to cool the coal and reduce the emissions.

Mayor Shmitt stated the best way to stop the fire is to burn the coal in the boiler. The power plant began burning the 300 tons of coal and producing electricity, however the coal was still smoldering in the hopper. This was releasing emissions from the building that was not directed through the smoke stack and the installed pollution controls thus increasing the likelihood of emissions in the immediate vicinity of the power plant.

Indiana Department of Environmental Management, Dubois County Health Department, and the Environmental Protection Agency were called in to make an assessment on the emissions hazard to the residents of Jasper.

Shelly Lam, On Scene Coordinator EPA Emergency Response team, and her team arrived Tuesday evening at approximately 7 p.m. They installed three sensors around the city of Jasper and have a roving unit testing the air quality in the city. The EPA monitored the air until the coal was used up.

The EPA was concerned about carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxide. They were monitoring those levels as well as the fine particles. They noticed spikes but were more concerned for sustained increases in amounts. The EPA is concerned about spikes because the burn is uncontrolled since it is not going through the scrubbers that normally clean the escaping particulates and emissions.

Windell Toby the generation manager explained that the coal started an exothermic reaction that caused the smoldering and burning to occur. This type of reaction occurs when coal gets wet. The windows to the power plant are old and leak. Toby thought that the storms that passed through earlier this week had wet the coal.

This type of fire has occurred in the past at the power plant but the plant was operating and the burning coal was fed into the boiler.

Hauersperger reported today most of the coal was burned last night by approximately 11 p.m. Today they worked on moving burning coal that was coating the walls of the chute into the boiler and then drop it into the ashpit. The unburned coal and ash would be removed by a waste disposal company to be placed in a landfill.

IDEM and the Dubois County Health Department both commended the City for its response to the fire.

Mayor Schmitt and Haurersperger stated that Jay Catasein, the leaser of the power plant for its conversion to a biomass power plant, had been notified. There was no indication that the lease was in jeapardy due to the fire.

When the mayor was asked if the city was taking steps to prevent this from happening again he stated, “Yep, we’re going to burn miscanthus.”