One of the 32 wind turbines operating at the Kent Hills wind farm caught fire over the weekend.
Elgin Fire Department and Employees of TransAlta, the power generation company that runs the farm, responded to the fire at about 9 a.m. Saturday and contained it.
Jason Edworthy, a spokesman for the Alberta-based company, said that three TransAlta employees who work on site were alerted by the turbine's sensor that there was a problem.
They went to the scene but saw no fire and returned to their office, only to receive another automated message, which prompted them to return to the turbine again.
Edworthy said a passer-by saw smoke and called the fire department
Officials haven't been able to confirm the cause of the fire yet.
Vestas, the company that supplies the turbines, will have a team on site today to try and determine what happened."Apparently, this is the first time this has ever happened on this particular model of turbine, so they're obviously quite concerned," said Edworthy.
Fire Departments from Riverview and Salisbury also responded to the call.
A single turbine is estimated to cost between $4 million and $5 million dollars.
The wind farm was commissioned in Dec. 31, 2008.
The turbine closest to the burned unit will be shut down as a precaution, but the rest of the farm will remain operating, Edworthy said.
No one was injured in the fire.
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