A “possible explosion” at an aerospace facility Wednesday evening led officials to evacuate anyone within a 1-mile radius of the facility and temporarily shut down Burnet County roads, according to the Burnet County sheriff’s office.
The fire ignited during a test at the Firefly Aerospace facility in Briggs and was extinguished at the site, the company said on Facebook. No one was hurt, according to Firefly Aerospace representatives.
Firefly provides launch vehicles, spacecraft and in-space services.
The sheriff’s office was informed at 6:24 p.m. “that a possible explosion had occurred,” sheriff’s officials wrote on Facebook. Oakalla firefighters requested the evacuation, the closure of U.S. 183 in the Briggs area and of nearby county roads, and the activation of reverse 911 phone calls, sheriff’s officials said.
The area was declared safe at 9:25 p.m., when officials reopened the roads.
The Firefly Fabrication and Construction Team has continued to expand and improve our 200-acre Briggs, Texas site. In 2019 we added Building 4 and Test Stands 3 and 4, in addition to major upgrades to TS1 and TS2. Firefly’s co-located Production and Test capability is unique in pic.twitter.com/LDygeGu5XS
— Firefly Aerospace (@Firefly_Space) January 9, 2020
“During testing this evening, we experienced a test anomaly resulting in a small fire on our test stand,” the Firefly Aerospace Facebook post says. “The fire was quickly extinguished by our fire suppression systems on the stand, and the local community emergency response team quickly responded. Both the test stand and our rocket are intact. At no time was there any risk to individuals on site or the community. We apologize for any inconvenience caused, and we will be working with the local emergency response team to ensure that the local community is kept aware of actions in a timely manner.”
Firefly Aerospace said it will host a “community day” in the future to explain what happened and to answer any questions.
Video shared by a viewer shows what appears to be a large explosion at the @Firefly_Space facility in Briggs. The facility was testing its Alpha Rocket at the time. pic.twitter.com/eavye6GQks
— Tom Miller (@TomMillerKXAN) January 23, 2020
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