A wind turbine has snapped in half and is currently sitting bent over in an open field in Chatham-Kent.
The approximately 160-tonne turbine is located at Drake Road and 16 Line at Raleigh Wind Power facility in Dillon, Ont. The turbine buckled overnight, according to Terraform Power director of investor relations Chad Reed.
"The collapse involved a single turbine at our 52-turbine Raleigh facility," Reed told CTV News. "TerraForm has not experienced any similar issues at any of its wind facilities globally."
John Norton, the general manager of community development with the municipality, says the fire chief was on scene, as well as local police and crews from Terraform Power.
Norton adds they are all investigating to see how the turbine collapsed in half.
"In the meantime, we have secured the immediate area around the turbine and taken the full facility offline as a precaution as we conduct a site inspection," said Reed through an email.
The toppled turbine was discovered by a hunter scouting for coyotes early Friday morning in Harwich Township, according to The Blenheim News Tribune. The huge turbine blades and motor assembly crashed to the ground and the support structure appear to be folded in half.
Monte McNaughton, the Conservative MPP for Lombton-Kent-Middlesex, took to Twitter to alert Chris Ballard, the Minister of Environment and Cimate Change of what happened.
"17 families in Chatham-Kent cannot drink their well water and today, this from one of your local wind turbine projects," McNaughton wrote on Twitter. "I again call for an immediate moratorium on North Kent and Otter Creek wind projects."
There are no reported injuries or impact to the broader community, according to the company. No houses or barns were in the immediate area of the toppled structure.
