Trapped workers killed in chemical blaze

Five hydroelectric plant workers trapped inside an empty water tunnel during a chemical blaze have died, police said today.

A rescue crew went in from the bottom of the tunnel to put out the fire at the plant outside the Colorado mountain town of Georgetown and found the worker’s bodies, said Clear Creek County undersheriff Stu Nay.

“We have found the parties. We have five fatalities,” Nay said.

Xcel Energy spokeswoman Ethnie Groves previously said that workers had initially communicated that they were not injured, but it was not clear how many times they had communicated with authorities after that.

After the fire broke out, the five workers had rushed uphill to a section of the pipe that had been blocked off to prevent ground water from seeping into it, authorities said.

They were among a group of workers who were in the tunnel when the fire broke out at 2pm local time yesterday on a machine being used to coat the inside of the 4ft-wide pipe with epoxy, Groves said.

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 hospital, Groves said.

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