Fire at Clare electricity station

A fire on a coal mill feeder at one of the country’s largest electricity generating stations was brought under control by the fire brigade early yesterday.

The fire was detected at around 8am on the feeder at the Moneypoint thermal facility near Kilrush, Co Clare. The feeder is a conveyor belt that transfers coal into a grinding mill.

As personnel began tackling the blaze, fire crews from Kilrush and Kilkee were sent to the incident. After arriving at the scene, fire officers requested an additional unit from Kilkee to provide assistance.

There were fears that if the fire was not extinguished quickly it could spread to a bunker which stores around 25,000 tonnes of coal. Fire personnel spent around two hours trying to extinguish the fire. However, nobody was injured in the incident and its understood no damage was caused.

An ESB spokesman said: “A small fire broke out on a mill feeder at Moneypoint. It was detected early and brought under control quickly by ESB staff with the assistance of the Fire Brigade.

“It is standard procedure to bring in the Fire Brigade, even for small fires such as this one.”