By: Jim Rosenberg The major electrical fire that interrupted the print run of the Sunday Tulsa World at 1:30 yesterday morning injured no pressroom staffers but prevented a resumption of printing until 4:00 in the afternoon, according to Vice President
and General Manager John R. Bair.
"Our bus system was one of the contributing factors," Bair said, adding that it will be weeks before investigators can fully explain the cause. The failure of the electrical bus "is very uncommon," said Bair, who added that a supervisor
from the local electrical utility said he had never seen it in all his years on the job. It is being sent back to its manufacturer, General Electric, for testing.
In the meantime, with 5,000 amps and four transformers available to the pressroom, "we have more than enough capacity," said Bair. Though two transformers are idled, that still leaves twice the electrical power needed for regular pressruns.
Losing power and restarting the two Wifag presses, however, came at a high cost, as the procedure damaged the presses' electronics. "We've had significant components we've had to replace," Bair reported. "That figure will continue to rise."
Fortunately for the World, it maintains a large parts inventory from which it was able to supply replacements needed to resume printing.
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