Lock & Dam Fire Quickly Doused

 

A construction crew working off a barge inside the auxiliary lock at Melvin Price Locks and Dam 26 extinguished a fire Thursday morning inside the engine of a crane on their vessel.

Battalion Chief Rob Franke, of the Alton Fire Department, said when firefighters arrived, the crew from Massman Construction Co. of Kansas City, Mo., had put out the fire using a hand extinguisher.

The city firefighters, though, were at the scene for about a half hour after responding to the 8:45 a.m. call. Franke said it took time for the firefighters to put down ladders on which to reach the barge from land, then retrieve the ladders and put them back on a firetruck.

There were no injuries.

Mike Petersen, chief of public affairs at the St. Louis District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, said the fire should not slow the construction workers’ progress in making repairs inside the shorter, 600-foot-long lock.

The construction crew is replacing a failed anchor bar on one of the two large miter gates in the lock.

An anchor bar is on top of the arm of a gate hinge. Petersen said each gate has a primary and secondary anchor bar. On this particular miter gate, it was the primary anchor bar that failed, forcing closure of the lock on Nov. 19.

Petersen said the work should be completed in April, before river traffic begins to increase in volume.

“This is a major piece of work, it should keep the lock running for a long time,” he said.

After the repairs are finished, he said plans are to inspect the cables on the main, 1,200-foot-long lock.

“It’s a challenge to keep the river navigable,” he said.