Swift response from the Kingfisher Electric Department staff and area fire departments kept an engine fire at the power plant from advancing from merely disruptive to disastrous Monday.

The electric plant, which only operates on an as-needed basis, had been generating at the request of the Oklahoma Municipal Power Authority to help alleviate current strain on the electrical grid, City Manager Dave Slezickey said.

“We’ve been generating an average of two days per week since the end of June,” Slezickey said.

Observant electric department staffers noticed the fire in the alternator on one of the engines almost as soon as it started, Slezickey said.

“The quick response from the electric department and Kingfisher Fire Department saved us from catastrophe,” he said. “Dover (fire department) responded and Okarche pulled in as it got under control.”

Among the 43 OMPA member cities, Kingfisher is one of four, along with Laverne, Pawhuska and Mangum, with municipal power plants.

All are used to provide auxiliary power during times of peak power usage to supplement other higher capacity generation sources which normally power the grid.

“We were generating when the incident occurred, feeding the grid,”Slezickey said.

When generating, the city gets paid by OMPA at rates set by the Southwest Power Pool.

“We also get penalized if we can’t meet capacity, but we think the force majeure clause covers us for this incident,” he said.

“We will be offline until damage assessment is complete. OMPA is sending some of their engineers out to help with the assessment.”

Electric Superintendent Mark Gamble and three other staff members, Luke Guthrie, Joey Machino and Winchester Smith, were on site when the fire started.

“Their quick reaction and safety focus kept us from losing the entire plant with diesel and natural gas fueling the other engine running,” Slezickey said.

Some brief localized power outages may have occurred from when the affected engine was shut down until the staff could make the switch on the substation, closing down the plant, he said.

The cause of the fire hasn’t been determined.