Hoover Dam Explosion Today Caught on Video | Here's What Caused It

Officials say a transformer caught fire at Hoover Dam on Tuesday morning and was extinguished. No one was hurt in the fire, and officials say there is no danger to the electricity grid.

At around 10 am, the transformer started fire. According to the federal Bureau of Reclamation, the fire was contained within half an hour at local time. A Twitter video appeared to show black smoke rising from the bottom of the vehicle.

Small Explosion in Hoover Dam Caught on Cam

As reported by city officials, the Boulder City, Nevada, the fire department was responding to an emergency call at the dam. Officials then said the fire was extinguished before firemen arrived, CBS News reported.

A visitor near the Hoover Dam tweeted a video of a tiny explosion and black smoke on Tuesday. A male voice, possibly that of a security guard or tour guide, can also be heard mentioning the explosion and fire at the dam below.

The fire was contained before the Boulder City Fire Department arrived, according to a Twitter account for the city of Boulder City, Nevada. The Bureau of Reclamation is a federal department of the United States Department of the Interior. The Department of Interior, which operates the Hoover Dam, stated that a transformer caught fire and was extinguished roughly 30 minutes later by the Reclamation/Hoover fire brigade.

Additional information on the event was obtained on a mobile phone camera at the hydro electrification plant.

The Hoover Dam, built between 1930 and 1936 in the Colorado River's Black Canyon on the boundary between Nevada and Arizona, is the tallest concrete arch dam in the United States.

The dam creates Lake Mead, the country's biggest man-made water reservoir, serving Arizona, California, Utah, Colorado, and Nevada, as well as sections of Mexico, as per Fox News.

About Hoover Dam

The Bureau of Reclamation maintains a special armed police force in charge of security at the dam, and checkpoints are in place to inspect visitors. The Hoover Dam is located about 30 miles outside of Las Vegas on the border between Nevada and Arizona.

It was built during the Great Depression in the 1930s to impound Lake Mead, the biggest reservoir in the United States by volume when full. However, Lake Mead has recently dropped to its lowest levels on record as a megadrought ravages the western United States.

The reservoir is presently at less than 30% capacity. Since reaching a high-water mark in 1983, its level has plummeted 170 feet. The retreating waters of Lake Mead National Recreation Area have recently exposed the skeleton remains of two persons, as well as numerous dried fish and a graveyard of lost and stranded boats.

Beached houseboats, yachts, and motorboats create a strange image in an otherwise rocky desert environment. Buoys that used to signal no-boat zones are now buried under the soil. Even a submerged World War II-era survey vessel has risen from the lake's receding waters.

The reservoir is critical to the water supply of 25 million people in areas like Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix, Tucson, and Las Vegas. The Hoover Dam is a concrete arch-gravity dam built in the 1930s in the Colorado River's Black Canyon that delivers drinking water to Arizona, Nevada, and a portion of Mexico.

The dam produces energy for Arizona, California, and Nevada areas, and as Lake Mead's water level declines, so does the dam's electrical production. According to the Western Area Power Administration, the dam generates around 2,074 megawatts on average, which is enough power for approximately 8 million people, as per Daily Mail.