Turbine fire sparks Queensland wide power outage, traffic chaos and blackouts
Power across Queensland has been restored to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses after a turbine fire at the Callide Power Station sparked a major outage.
Emergency crews are still at the scene of the fire.
The fire caused widespread outages and at the height of the drama, more than 375,000 homes and businesses were affected from the north of the state, including Brisbane and to the Gold Coast.
CS Energy tweeted that the fire occurred at 1.45pm in one of the turbine halls at the power station.
All workers are accounted for and there are no reports of injuries.
QFES advised there was an 550 metre exclusion zone which has been set up while fire crews remain on scene.
“The incident is expected to be a prolonged event,” the statement read.
Energex’s spokesman Danny Donald said the crews did an incredible job.
“It was almost like two cyclones worth of outages back up and running in two hours.”
Press PLAY below to hear how it all unfolded
POWER OUTAGES: Earlier this afternoon, Callide Power Station near Biloela was impacted by fire.
Workers were evacuated, and everyone is accounted for with no injuries reported.
The sudden loss of 2,000 megawatts of generated electricity has caused outages across the state. pic.twitter.com/i4l0H7UQKI
— Annastacia Palaszczuk (@AnnastaciaMP) May 25, 2021
Nine News reporter Alex Heinke told Scott Emerson he spoke to someone at Energex who told him it was the “biggest job they have ever had”.
He said some suburbs are seeing their power return, including on the Gold Coast.
Press PLAY to hear the latest from reporters
CS Energy has immediately acted following an incident at Callide Power Station near Biloela in Central Queensland today. At approximately 1.45pm today, a fire occurred in one of the turbine halls at the power station.
— CS Energy (@CSEnergyQld) May 25, 2021
Caller Damian told Deborah Knight said there were numerous suburbs without power.
“It is a massive problem across Brisbane.”
It also impacting dozens of traffic lights across the state.
It appears that there are multiple power outages in the Brisbane metro area, please use caution at intersections until power is restored #bnetraffic pic.twitter.com/BBH14QsdGP
— QLDTrafficMetro (@QLDTrafficMetro) May 25, 2021
Press PLAY below to hear where callers are reporting issues
More to come.
Image: Nine News