The Hoover Dam had a transformer blow on 7/19/2022 and caught fire around 10 am local time.  The fire was extinguished when the Boulder City Fire Department arrived on the scene.  The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which operates the dam and its power station, reported that no injuries occurred, and their power supply was uninterrupted with no risk to the power grid.

Videos posted to social media after the fire broke out appeared to show the immediate aftermath of a small explosion. A Twitter account under the name of Nashville-based realtor Kristy Hariston was among the first to share a short video showing the plume of black smoke rising from a small fire on a platform near the surface of Lake Mead. That video was watched more than 1 million times within the first hour after it was posted.

The Hoover Dam was built by the federal government during the Great Depression and generates more than three terawatt-hours (TWh) of power per year.  A terawatt hour (TWh) is a unit of energy, and it is equal to 1,000,000 MWh (megawatt-hour) or 1,000,000 000 kWh (kilowatt-hour)  – provides enough electricity for millions of customers in the western United States.