Wind turbine catches fire along Hume Highway near Breadalbane

A wind turbine has been destroyed in a spectacular fire that fire crews could only observe from ground level.

The NSW Rural Fire Service was called at 6am Thursday when fire consumed the top of the wind turbine, which was located just off the Hume Highway, near the town of Breadalbane, in the Southern Tablelands, NSW. .

With the rotor shaft and one of the blades on fire 90 meters above the ground, there was little the fire team could do except ensure that spot fires did not break out.

A wind turbine caught fire in a spectacular fire on the Hume Highway in southern New South Wales.

“No fire fighting resources were able to get to it so our job was to be on the ground and monitor for any grass fires that there weren’t any,” an NSWRFS spokesperson said.

“There were no threats to any other property.”

The Rural Fire Service said it had been widely accepted around the world that putting out fires from tall turbines was too dangerous.

The fire was highly visible from the nearby highway, prompting many frightened motorists to report it.

“Speaking to the owner and operator, it seems to be industry practice around the world that they just let it burn, for safety and access, you can’t really reach it when it’s on fire,” the spokesperson said.

“You don’t want the water and electricity to mix, the power was isolated from the structure and we basically had to wait for it to extinguish itself.”

The fire finally put out on its own just before 11 a.m.

Fire crews were able to do little about the blaze 300 feet above the ground, other than keep an eye out for the resulting grass fires.

The sight of the towering inferno that sent up a trail of black smoke spooked many motorists along the Hume Highway.

The NSW RFS said it received numerous calls about the incident, and that the attending fire trucks were not visible from the road.

“Many passing motorists were calling triple zero, but the crews caught on pretty quickly,” the fire service spokesman said.

“It was certainly very spectacular in terms of being seen from the road and other areas because of the height and the structure that it was.”

The turbine has been returned to the wind farm operator.

The fire was eventually extinguished on its own as fire crews monitored the surrounding area.

In terms of their high altitude, the fire service spokesman said that was not typical of what they were responding to.

“It’s certainly very unique because this time of year we’re usually responding to grass fires,” the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson was not aware of any previous wind turbine fires.

There was no immediate apparent cause of the fire, but international studies show that between 1 in 2,000 and 1 in 15,000 wind turbines catch fire.

With the installation of more turbines and the aging of the existing ones, the frequency of such incidents is expected to increase.