Maryland Stadium Authority VP/Facilities Jeff Provenzano said that an electrical fire at Camden Yards complex’s cooling plant around 2 p.m. on July 30, five hours ahead of the Orioles’ home game against the Yankees on ESPN’s “Sunday Night Baseball," damaged one of the complex’s three chillers -- the machines that cool the ballpark and M&T Bank Stadium -- while another suffered “mechanical problems,” according to Hayes Gardner of the BALTIMORE SUN. During a scheduled stadium board meeting Tuesday, Provenzano said, “In the matter of an hour, we lost two-thirds of the plant’s capacity to cool the complex.” Provenzano said that it is “unknown what caused the incident." The fire, though, was “small enough that it did not trigger an alarm.” Provenzano said that the fire was “noticed by an employee" but "contained to the chiller plant and no one was injured.” Gardner notes Oriole Park “can operate with just one chiller,” so there was “no dire situation that July 30 night, especially since it was not an unbearably hot evening.” But had it occurred a “few days earlier, or this week, with temperatures reaching 97 degrees,” it would have “presented a larger problem.” As of the "end of August" the two chillers had been repaired and the "plant is now fully functional" (BALTIMORE SUN, 9/7).
