Boiler Explosion Takes Out Heat To Many Downtown Buildings

WZZM13 reporting that an explosion Christmas day at the Veolia Energy Plant has taken out heat to a number of buildings in Downtown Grand Rapids.  The plant is located downtown across from Van Andel Arena and The B.O.B.

According to WZZM13, the boiler explosion knocked out the windows to the building on both the east and west side.

WZZM13 reports there was an employee on site, who was able to shut down the system and wasn’t hurt but was definitely shaken by the explosion.  The employee was taken to the hospital to be checked out.

No word yet when the plant will be back 100% or about heating in the various downtown buildings affected by the outage. Officials told WZZM13, no one coming downtown will be in danger because of the system outage, and they won’t power back to normal until they know what caused the energy buildup.