Company officials from Florida Power and Light are trying to figure out the cause of a wind turbine fire Wednesday on their farm southwest of Garner. The Garner Fire Department was called out to the turbine for the fire that caused two of the three 77-foot-long blades on the wind turbine to fall off.

F-P-L spokesman Steven Stengel says the whole tower didn’t fall, but the fire caused extensive damage.

He says the fire in the large structure at the top of the tower houses all the mechanical equipment such as the gear box and the generator. Stengel says the facility is continuing to operate as normal. Stengel says F-P-L is looking closely at the turbine’s operation to try and find out why the fire happened.

Stengel says they’re the largest owner and operator of this type of turbine, and it’s the first time that something like this has happened. He says they need to find out why it happened, to prevent it from happening again. Stengel says losing one turbine won’t significantly impact the operation or output of the wind farm.

He says on any given day, a turbine might be down for routine maintenance, and some turbines might not be operating because the wind isn’t blowing. F-P-L’s Hancock County 60-acre wind farm went into operation in late 2002, housing 148 of the 660-kilowatt wind turbines that stand over 200 feet above the ground.