117 Years Ago
The July 15, 1909 Colorado Transcript described a fire at the Golden Illuminating Company’s transformer building. Golden’s electric power company was located on Jackson Street, between 12th and 13th. Originally, they generated the power on site by burning coal, but by 1909 they were importing power from Denver through several miles of high voltage wires.
The cause of the fire was “lightning coming in on the wires from near Denver.” The damage in the Golden facility was considerable:
…practically every machine and instrument in the building, with the exception of the three largest transformers, were destroyed, either by the great heat from the fire or by the burning out of the coils with the overcharge of electricity. The lightning evidently came several miles over the wires, as there was no storm here that evening. The bolt was so heavy that the lightning arresters proved useless and the mysterious fluid jumped across directly to the potential transformers, all of which were destroyed.
The reference to “mysterious fluid” (electrical current) is interesting. People weren’t accustomed to dealing with electricity at that time. The article mentions that the fire fighters were about to aim their hoses at the high tension wires, but the Illuminating Company employees stopped them just in time. Such a move might have electrocuted the fire fighters.
The damage was so great that the town expected to operate by candlelight for a week, but the Illuminating Company employees were able to patch things together and get Golden’s lights running by the next night.
