# Explosion at Hoover Dam {July 19, 2022} **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Tags:** breaking-news\ **Created:** [July 19, 2022, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explosion-at-hoover-dam-july-19-2022/968213 "2022-07-19T18:14:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2022, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explosion-at-hoover-dam-july-19-2022/968213/1 "2022-07-19T18:14:48Z")
There’s been an explosion at Hoover Dam; depending on who you believe, it was either small or massive. > **[See it: Massive explosion rocks Hoover Dam](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11029187/Massive-explosion-rocks-Hoover-Dam-black-smoke-fire-seen-inside-turbine-house.html)** > > Officials said there were no injuries following the fire on Tuesday in the turbine house of the massive power-generating dam, which supplies electricity to parts of three states. > **[Small explosion at the Hoover Dam in Nevada](https://bnonews.com/index.php/2022/07/small-explosion-at-the-hoover-dam-in-nevada/)** > > A small explosion happened at the base of the Hoover Dam in Nevada on Tuesday morning, causing a fire that was quickly extinguished, local officials and witnesses say. There were no reports of injuries. The incident happened just after 10 a.m. on... The fire has been put out, and there are no reports of any damage to the dam’s integrity, according to the second article. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2022, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explosion-at-hoover-dam-july-19-2022/968213/2 "2022-07-19T18:24:10Z")
I’m wondering if this is in anyway related to the low level of Lake Mead. ---
**Author:** ![pjd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pjd/32/3009_2.png) [@pjd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pjd)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2022, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explosion-at-hoover-dam-july-19-2022/968213/3 "2022-07-19T18:40:47Z")
I heard it was a small explosion about the size of a big explosion, ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2022, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explosion-at-hoover-dam-july-19-2022/968213/4 "2022-07-19T18:42:20Z")
A small explosion about the size of a big explosion that is far away? ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2022, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explosion-at-hoover-dam-july-19-2022/968213/5 "2022-07-19T18:42:39Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > I’m wondering if this is in anyway related to the low level of Lake Mead. Transformer fire: > **[Hoover Dam transformer explodes; no one hurt](https://www.denverpost.com/2022/07/19/hoover-dam-transformer-explodes-no-one-hurt/)** > > BOULDER CITY, Nev. (AP) — A transformer exploded Tuesday at Hoover Dam, one of the nation’s largest hydroelectric facilities, producing a thick cloud of black smoke and flames that were… Stranger ---
**Author:** ![pjd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pjd/32/3009_2.png) [@pjd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pjd)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2022, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explosion-at-hoover-dam-july-19-2022/968213/6 "2022-07-19T18:43:45Z")
I’m in the UK. It’s all far away. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2022, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explosion-at-hoover-dam-july-19-2022/968213/7 "2022-07-19T18:43:55Z")
Video in this tweet. [https://twitter.com/kristynashville/status/1549441916000825344](https://twitter.com/kristynashville/status/1549441916000825344) ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2022, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explosion-at-hoover-dam-july-19-2022/968213/8 "2022-07-19T18:44:50Z")
> [@ekedolphin](#): > > depending on who you believe, it was either small or massive. Why am I not surprised the _Daily Mail_ described it as “massive”? ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2022, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explosion-at-hoover-dam-july-19-2022/968213/9 "2022-07-19T18:46:15Z")
> [@WildaBeast](#): > > the _Daily Mail_ described it as “massive”? Did they mention the impact it may have on U.K. house prices? ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2022, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explosion-at-hoover-dam-july-19-2022/968213/10 "2022-07-19T18:49:58Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > Transformer fire Update: it was Grimlock, but they say that he’s going to be okay. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2022, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explosion-at-hoover-dam-july-19-2022/968213/11 "2022-07-19T21:17:02Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > Transformer fire: That’s a relief. My mind kept jumping to various sorts of attacks, and I was having a hard time thinking of what else it could be. ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2022, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explosion-at-hoover-dam-july-19-2022/968213/12 "2022-07-19T21:22:44Z")
That was my first assumption as well: Terrorism. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2022, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explosion-at-hoover-dam-july-19-2022/968213/13 "2022-07-20T01:55:07Z")
An explosion in a transformer at the Hoover Dam generator house could be both small on the scale of the dam and pretty darn massive on the scale of people. Everything about that facility is big. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2022, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explosion-at-hoover-dam-july-19-2022/968213/14 "2022-07-20T01:57:01Z")
> [@ekedolphin](#): > > That was my first assumption as well: Terrorism. Be kinda dumb terrorists. If you want to see the Hoover dam stop generating electricity, you just wait a couple of years. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2022, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explosion-at-hoover-dam-july-19-2022/968213/15 "2022-07-20T03:54:04Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Be kinda dumb terrorists. If you want to see the Hoover dam stop generating electricity, you just wait a couple of years. It makes about as much sense as boring tunnels under Disneyworld to flood it. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2022, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explosion-at-hoover-dam-july-19-2022/968213/16 "2022-07-20T04:00:30Z")
Definitely a small massive explosion. Really on the low end for massive explosions, just a little too large to be a regular explosion. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2022, 8:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explosion-at-hoover-dam-july-19-2022/968213/17 "2022-07-20T08:33:51Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > boring tunnels under Disneyworld At least the boring tunnels underground will match the boring park aboveground. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2022, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explosion-at-hoover-dam-july-19-2022/968213/18 "2022-07-20T14:05:43Z")
Well, dam. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2022, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explosion-at-hoover-dam-july-19-2022/968213/19 "2022-07-20T14:25:31Z")
In late 2001, some friends and I took jet skis and a rented bass boat up the Colorado to the dam. There were federal agents in boats that stopped us from getting close enough to see the dam (just around the last corner, about a quarter mile from the rope buoy chain). Now what they thought a couple small boats could do to a zillion ton concrete dam, I don’t know, but they weren’t taking any chances, no siree. Two years later we went back and went right up to the buoy. That water moves _fast_ coming out of the generators. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2022, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explosion-at-hoover-dam-july-19-2022/968213/20 "2022-07-20T14:27:13Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > At least the boring tunnels underground will match the boring park aboveground. \*_golf clap_\* Stranger [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explosion-at-hoover-dam-july-19-2022/968213.md?page=2)