Fire at Colo. hydroelectric generating plant traps 5 workers

GEORGETOWN, Colo. -- A chemical fire at a hydroelectric plant outside this mountain town trapped five workers about 1,000 feet inside an empty water tunnel Tuesday.

All five were communicating with rescuers and none was injured, officials said. The structural integrity of the dam was not compromised.

Firefighters were battling the fire from the end of the pipe as rescuers prepared to rappel from the top into the tunnel that descends on a 55-degree angle toward the trapped workers.

It was not clear how much time it would take to reach the group.

"They're up a ways from the fire, a safe distance, waiting for the appropriate fire and rescue personnel to respond," said Tom Henley, a spokesman for Xcel Energy, which owns the Cabin Creek Station plant about 30 miles west of Denver.

Crews sent breathing masks and pumped air to the trapped workers about 45 minutes after the fire started, said sheriff's Maj. Rick Albers.

Nine workers were in the tunnel when the fire broke out at 2 p.m. on a machine being used to coat the inside of the 4-foot-wide pipe with epoxy, said Xcel spokeswoman Ethnie Groves.

The water tunnel had been shut down for routine maintenance when the fire broke out.

The five trapped workers rushed uphill to a section of the pipe that had been blocked off to prevent ground water from seeping into it.

Four workers below the fire were able to scramble out of the bottom of the tunnel, which goes through a mountain to a small reservoir. Two of the four workers who scrambled out from the pipe were treated for chemical inhalation. One was airlifted to a hospital, Groves said.

The underground channel is called a penstock, which delivers water from a reservoir to turbines that generate electricity. The maintenance was being done by a contractor, but Xcel did not release the contractor's name.

The hydroelectric plant generates electricity during peak times of demand by releasing water from one reservoir into a lower reservoir, then pumping the water back to the upper reservoir.

It was built from 1964 to 1967 and is located about 2 miles southwest of Georgetown at 10,018 feet above sea level.