Fire damages solar part of Ofu micro grid

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A fire broke out at the new micro grid power plant in Ofu, Manu’a last Friday which has completely damaged the building housing the solar battery storage for the plant.

Ofu, Olosega and Sili which were powered by a combination of solar and diesel energy, are now back to sole dependence on diesel generated power.

The plant is situated next to the ASG gas station in Ofu and it could have been a major disaster if the fire had not been contained in the solar battery storage building and had spread.

There was no fire truck to help put out the fire, even though the ARRF (Airport Rescue & Fire Fighting) Building in Ofu is supposed to have a fire truck stationed there.

It turns out that the fire truck which used to be there was brought to Tutuila some time ago.

An account of the fire and efforts to put it out came from Manu’a District #2 Rep. Tiaoalii Sai who spoke with KHJ News yesterday from Ofu.

“I was in my house when the power suddenly went off and I sensed the strong smell of something burning, like plastic. I came outside and saw a cloud of dark smoke billowing from the power plant,” said Titialii.

He made his way to the plant and saw the operator on duty using a water hose to try and put out the blaze, by himself.

Rep Tiaoalii said one of the people who was the first to arrive at the scene after him was a former fireman for Public Safety, Clint Ilaoa. Together they helped the ASPA operator fight the blaze, along with the ASPA Manager in Ofu.

The Manu’a lawmaker said they shut the doors so that the fire was contained in the building.

“We put the water hoses and a power washer through the windows of the building to douse the flames,” said Tioalii. “We didn’t want the flames to spread outside the building…because the fuel pumps are right there and for sure there would have been an explosion.“

He said the smoke was very thick and they had difficulty breathing while fighting the blaze. “We will probably feel the effects later on but our focus was to put out the fire and not let it pread out of the building.“

Tiaoalii was thankful that no one was injured and they were successful in putting out the fire.

He said the building is still standing but everything inside is damaged.

The Manu’a faipule was upset that there was no fire truck at the ARFF Building at Ofu Airport.

He was told that the fire truck had been brought to Tutuila a while back and was never returned.

He said, “It’s irresponsible to not have a fire truck at the airport. It’s fortunate that all this time there hasn’t been an accident at the airport and it took the fire at the ASPA plant to expose this anomaly,

Power has been restored to the island however with the solar part of the Ofu micro grid now out of commission the islands are now back to sole reliance on diesel power.

And according to Rep Tiaoalii, the ASPA Manager reckons there’s only enough diesel to last one week.

He said hes been in contact with the staff of Acting Governor Lemanu Peleti Mauga and efforts are being made to dispatch a shipment of fuel to Ofu sometime this week.

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