Hoover Dam explosion captured in terrifying video in Nevada with tourists heard saying ‘something’s blown up’

AN explosion has rocked the Hoover Dam with thick black smoke seen billowing from the historic landmark. Footage posted on social media shows a giant fireball rising at the Nevada monument on Tuesday morning. The Boulder City Police Department confirmed to The US Sun they had units en route to the scene following an explosion. […]

AN explosion has rocked the Hoover Dam with thick black smoke seen billowing from the historic landmark.

Footage posted on social media shows a giant fireball rising at the Nevada monument on Tuesday morning.

AFP

The historic landmark was constructed between 1931 and 1936 during the Great Depression[/caption]

TikTok/iris_jaded

Tourists in the area captured the moment the fire broke out at one of the sections of the dam’s base[/caption]

The Boulder City Police Department confirmed to The US Sun they had units en route to the scene following an explosion.

A tourist visiting the site captured a video showing the fire may have occurred in a building near the dam’s base.

However, cops have yet to determine where exactly in the facility the explosion took place.

A second video on Twitter shows sirens ringing as visitors watch the fire from a bridge overlooking the dam.

The Boulder City Fire Department said the blaze was extinguished before units arrived on the scene.

Tours of the dam were paused for about 30 minutes at the time of the fire and have since resumed, 8NewsNow reported.

Built between 1931 and 1936 during the Great Depression, the Hoover Dam was constructed to provide irrigation water and hydroelectric power and control the Colorado River’s seasonal flooding.

The landmark is one of the nation’s largest hydroelectric facilities, generating on average about four billion kilowatt-hours of hydroelectric power each year.

The generated electricity is enough to serve more than 1.3million people across Nevada, Arizona and California.

There are 17 main turbines in the dam, with nine on the Arizona wing and eight in the Nevada wing.

The structure was named Hoover Dam in honor of then-President Herbert Hoover, who led negotiations for the 1922 Colorado River Compact that apportioned the river’s waters between the upper and lower basins.

The concrete-arch gravity dam captures water from the Colorado River and fills Lake Mead.