False Alarm at Lamar Light Plant

The Lamar Fire and Ambulance Department listed a false alarm as the cause of their response to the Lamar Light Plant this past Saturday, November 12. Three units responded to a call shortly after 10am, triggered from an audible alarm that sounded at the Repowering Project work site on South 2nd Street.

Plant personnel told the fire department, the alarm was a carbon monoxide monitoring system that had been activated from a carbon monoxide build up inside one of the coal storage domes. The system is set to alarm when monoxide content exceeds 800 parts per million. Possible hot coal pockets are believed to be the source of the increased monoxide gas and plant personnel said they would use that coal at the plant as soon as possible. A similar situation occurred in the domes about two and a half years ago because the coal stored in the domes was not being used as quickly as scheduled. The fire department cleared the scene about twenty minutes after the initial alarm.

by Russ Baldwin