Authorities are assuring Tasmania’s power supply is secure, after a serious blaze broke out at the Tungatinah Power Station overnight.
The fire at the major hydro asset at Tarraleah was reported shortly before 9pm on Wednesday night, and it took firefighters hours to bring it under control.
“They were confronted with a fire that spread fully across the building and the building was in early stages of collapse,” Tasmania Fire Service deputy chief officer Matt Lowe said.
“It was quite a difficult and complex incident. There were a lot of safety issues they (firefighters) had to face, and I’m happy to say no injuries were reported.
“The fire is now contained. We do have crews on scene throughout the morning to make the scene safe, so fire examiners can enter.”
Premier Jeremy Rockliff said Tungatinah was an important part of Tasmania’s Hydro network, and accounted for five per cent of the state’s power.
“I wanted to assure Tasmanians there is no risk to Tasmania’s energy supply,” he said.
“We will continue to assess the damage and focus our efforts on building what is very important infrastructure for Tasmania’s Hydro network and energy supply.”
TasNetworks’ Renee Anderson said the system was designed to withstand an incident like this.
“We have strong back up, and we are very confident in the security of the network going forward,” she said.
