One Dead, Three Missing after Boiler Room Collapses at Didcot Power Station in U.K.

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--One person was killed and three others were missing after half of the boiler building at the Didcot A coal-fired power station in Oxfordshire, England collapsed this week.

The power station, which was shut in 2013, is in the process of being decommissioned, and it is believed that the collapse is connected to the process of weakening the building prior to the planned demolition next month. Reports that there was a loud explosion before the massive building collapsed were not confirmed. Didcot A is located next to the Didcot B gas-fired power station, which was shut temporarily in 2014 after a huge blaze broke out in a cooling tower connected to one of the two operating turbines. For additional information, see October 20, 2014, article - Blaze Shuts Didcot B Power Plant in U.K..

"We can confirm that shortly after 4pm this afternoon part of the Boiler House at our former Didcot A Power Station site in Oxfordshire collapsed while an external demolition contractor was working in it," RWE nPowe plc (Swindon, England) said in a statement. "It is with great sadness that we understand that there has been one fatality, four people have been taken to hospital and three people are currently missing and unaccounted for. Our thoughts are with the families of all those involved in this tragedy. We will provide updates as we receive them."

Five other people were hospitalised while 50 more were treated for dust inhalation. Emergency crews and sniffer dogs worked through Tuesday night and Wednesday searching for the missing workers in an operation that fire crews admitted could take "several days."

"The remainder of the building is very unsafe, which is hampering the search. This is a very difficult situation with a very unstable structure," Oxfordshire Assistant Chief Fire Officer Simon Furlong told BBC News. "The safety of emergency service personnel has to remain our priority, while recognising how hard this must be for families waiting for news of loved ones overnight."

Didcot A was a 2,000-megawatt (MW) power station. It was commissioned in 1970 and decommissioned in March 2013. Three of the four 500 MW generating units were later converted to dual-firing, enabling the station to use natural gas as an alternative to coal.

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