Suspicious devices found at Four Corners Power PlantFARMINGTON Aug 4 - McClatchy-Tribune Content Agency, LLC - Steve Garrison The Daily Times, Farmington, N.M.
Employees at the Four Corners Power Plant in Fruitland were evacuated Monday after three suspicious devices were discovered in one of the power plant's units. Arizona Public Service Co. spokeswoman Jenna Shaver said Monday the devices, which are approximately six inches in length and capped at both ends, were discovered inside unit 4 of the power plant before 8 a.m. The discovery resulted in all employees and personnel being evacuated from the plant, which is majority owned by APS, Shaver said. Shaver said Monday afternoon that units 4 and 5 of the power plant continued to operate, despite the evacuation. Units 1 through 3 were permanently shuttered in 2013. Farmington police spokeswoman Georgette Allen said the Farmington Police Department's bomb squad responded to the plant after receiving reports of a suspicious package, but the FBI was the lead agency in the investigation. Farmington police officers were joined at the plant by FBI agents, Navajo police officers, New Mexico State Police officers and San Juan County Sheriff's Office deputies. FBI spokesman Frank Fisher confirmed Monday evening that three suspicious devices were investigated at the plant, but declined to say whether they contained explosive material. "This is a slow process," he said. Fisher said it was too early to say yet whether the incident at the power plant was connected to reports of explosions outside two Las Cruces churches Sunday morning. "Until we can get in there and check out the items, it'd be premature to say," Fisher said. Vehicles packed with employees streamed out of the power plant shortly after 1 p.m. Monday as Navajo police officers blocked entrance to the facility. One woman, who asked that she not be identified, parked her vehicle near the police cordon to wait for her husband, a temporary employee, to exit the plant. "He scared me," she said. "He called me up and said there was a bomb threat." The Four Corners Power Plant and its coal provider, the Navajo Mine, jointly employ more than 800 people in the region. Daily Times reporter Noel Lyn Smith contributed to this story. Steve Garrison covers crime and courts for The Daily Times. He can be reached at 505-564-4644 and stgarrison@daily-times.com. Follow him on Twitter @SteveGarrisonDT on Twitter. http://www.energycentral.com/functional/news/news_detail.cfm?did=36958422 |