Dozens of workers from Rockland County?s Bowline Power Plant were evacuated Wednesday after a transformer exploded.

Fire officials say some 20 people were inside the power plant at the time of the explosion, which happened at around 1:00 p.m., disintegrating and burning transmission wires. Officials say, however, that no one was injured.

"Everybody got out safe, no problems; they have an evacuation plan," says Deputy Fire Coordinator John Kryger. "They've been through this before. They know exactly what to do."

Firefighters who arrived at the scene managed to extinguish the flames within an hour, but Kryger says that putting out the blaze was not the main problem. Instead, it was what the fire exposed - asbestos.

"It concerns me for the people there, but it doesn't seem to travel,? says neighbor Claudia Perry, referring to asbestos, whose smell hung in the air after the explosion. "I don't think for the neighborhood it's a problem."Four agencies collaborated with the Stony Point Fire Deparmtent, providing additional air masks to protect firefighters as they cleared the toxic fibers using dry chemical extinguishers.

The cause of the transformer explosion is still under investigation.

The Bowline Power Plant is owned by Mirant Corporation - the same company that shut down Stony Point's Lovett power station in April.