BREAKING: Materials catch fire at Central Energy Facility
Emergency personnel responded to a fire at the Central Energy Facility early Sunday evening.
Mount Pleasant Fire Department Sgt. Michael Dunham said the fire, reported at about 6 p.m., was likely caused by a motor in the Central Energy Facility igniting wood chips used for the boiler.
Dunham said the situation was not dangerous because the fire was contained by the facility's cement silo.
"What we're trying to do is prevent this from burning most of the product up," he said.
He said firefighters tried to extinguish the flames at the source, which was the easiest and fastest way, instead of trying to remove the wood chips from the silo.
Dunham said the MPFD responded to a similar scenario once before in the past.
There were about 15 to 20 feet of wood chips in the silo.
Campus police were present monitoring traffic on West Campus Drive while authorities dealt with the fire.
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