WIND TURBINE NEAR PEETZ COLLAPSES, CATCHES FIRE
It’s the second windmill collapse in Logan County in the past two years
A second wind turbine has collapsed in Logan County, this one near Peetz in an older wind farm.
Firefighters from Peetz and Crook were called to the site near Peetz between 8 and 9 a.m. Thursday after one of the turbines apparently collapsed and caught fire. Logan County, Emergency Manager Jerry Casebolt told the Journal-advocate word he heard at the scene was that the tower collapsed first and then caught fire.
Casebolt said he believed the wind tower is owned by Clearway Energy of San Francisco and that company personnel had been to the site but were not providing any information on the incident. Late Friday the company finally released a statement about the incident:
“On Thursday morning, a wind tower at the Spring Canyon Energy Center experienced a failure,” the statement said. “There were no injuries. Invenergy, who operates but does not own the tower, immediately activated its response procedure and worked with local response services to address the situation. We are very grateful to the Logan County Fire Department (sic) for their immediate response. We are now working with local officials on an investigation into the incident.”
The message did not include information on the age of the tower, which had been requested.
It’s the second time in the 20 years wind turbines have been in Logan County that a turbine has collapsed. In June 2022 a newly-installed Nextera Energy turbine south of Fleming collapsed when one of the blades cracked, causing the blade to strike the tower, collapsing the tower and sending the turbine plummeting to the ground. That turbine did not catch fire, however.