Emergency crews remain at the scene of a Tesla battery fire at a major renewable energy facility in central Queensland.
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TVTranscript
00:00 We know that emergency services were called to the blaze just before 8 o'clock last night
00:06 happening at the Bouldercombe Battery Project, which is about 20 kilometres from Rockhampton.
00:12 Residents were urged to stay indoors and to keep respiratory medication close by because
00:16 of the risk of hazardous smoke spilling out from the area.
00:20 Police and several firefighting crews were called and the blaze was contained earlier
00:25 this morning but certainly there were scenes of large flames coming up from the batteries.
00:31 GenX Power, who operates the site, said no one was there at the time.
00:36 GenX Power uses Tesla batteries and they've said that on advice from Tesla and with firefighters
00:43 that the blaze itself is going to be left to basically burn out on its own under supervision
00:49 of firefighters.
00:50 Now the site itself is a $60 million project and it's not even completely operational yet
00:56 so it's only been connected to the grid in recent months and that's sort of at this stage.
01:04 You know earlier this morning we saw dark, wafts of smoke coming out but it has sort
01:09 of died down now.
01:11 Jasmin, what have witnesses told you that they heard?
01:15 Yes, so we've had a Graysmere resident, he said that he heard loud pops and crackles
01:21 from people coming past.
01:24 He said that he saw large flumes of fires in different colours.
01:31 Also said that he sort of kept his distance because he was concerned that this smoke could
01:35 have been toxic.
01:37 Houses nearby are about 500 metres from this site and the neighbours that we've spoken
01:42 to this morning, some have said that they sort of slept through the whole thing.
01:46 Others have said that they've woken up to sort of a bit of a plastic burning smell on
01:52 the site so everyone is sort of staying indoors and keeping careful.
01:56 The Bouldercomb Progress Association, they said it's still too early at this stage to
02:01 say whether or not the community is really concerned on this.
02:05 They say they want to wait until they've got more information.
02:08 Now GenX Power has said they're going to work alongside with Tesla to sort of investigate
02:13 the cause of the blaze.
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