FIRE DAMAGES WATER PLANT HERE

When a worker at the Cape Girardeau Water Treatment Plant dropped a wrench into an electrical control panel Wednesday, it caused the panel to short out and trip the circuit breakers.

On Thursday, when Union Electric workers went to the plant to turn the power back on, the wrench had not been removed.

"Apparently, the wrench caused some sort of problem when the Union Electric workers reset the panel and turned it back on," said Fire Capt. Gordon Morgan. "A pretty good sized fire started in the entire panel box, but it also caused smaller fires in the office area, catching some books and papers on fire."

Firefighters were summoned to the water plant shortly after noon Thursday to put out the blaze. Morgan said the fire was put out in a matter of minutes.

"Since the Union Electric guys were still there, they shut down the power to the control panel and the surrounding area," Morgan said. "Had they not done that, we couldn't have used water to extinguish the fire. It didn't take much water to knock it down."

The electrical panels and areas of the office that were ignited by the power surge sustained quite a bit of damage, Morgan said. Crews worked to repair the damaged panel late Thursday.

"They're going to try and get everything back on line as soon as possible," said Morgan.