Engineers probing the collapse of a 190-ton turbine in rural Madison County have a lot of work ahead of them because the type of crash that occurred at Fenner Wind Farm appears to be unprecedented, officials from the wind farm operator said. The turbine that crashed at about 4 a.m. Dec. 27, 2009, on the wind farm located northeast of Cazenovia became dislodged from its foundation.

Nearly two months after a 187-ton windmill collapsed in a cornfield in Fenner, neighbors, local officials, energy advocates and the wind farm's other 19 turbines are still waiting for answers. Turbine 18, which once stood 212 feet from the ground to the center hub and 329 feet to the tip of a blade at its full height, fell to the ground the early hours of Dec. 27, shaking up residents who lived among the giants for nearly a decade and industry officials who had never seen a similar failure.

Teams of engineers are still trying to figure out what caused one of the huge Fenner wind turbines to collapse in late December. Piece by piece engineers are going over the wreckage of what was once a 328 foot tall, 187 ton wind turbine. The key section, however, will only be accessible when it's all cut up and removed.

"We were notified by the owners of the wind farm this morning," said town Supervisor Russell L. Cary, from his home Sunday night. "They detected it and were out there looking at it. They don't know what happened. They're basically investigating what happened." ...Mr. Cary said the importance of the town board's discussion to regulate where the turbines can be placed didn't hit home until Sunday morning, when he saw the mangled tower laying in the field.

Buyea Road resident David Kalenak said the crumpled remains of the wind turbine attracted hundreds of onlookers throughout the day on the rural road, which usually sees just one or two cars each hour. "I think a couple of my neighbors are a little nervous," said Kalenak, who didn't hear the crash. "This one was in a field, but others are in the line of homes."

Local residents are wondering if one wind turbine could collapse in Madison County, then it is very possible for a turbine to fall anywhere. Fairfield resident Jim Salamone thinks why couldn't it happen in his back yard. Salamone ...says he was not surprised when he woke up to find out a wind turbine had collapsed in Fenner. He says the meteorological tower that used to be right across from his home already collapsed because of wind and ice.

A windmill on Buyea Road in the Fenner Wind Farm Project hit the ground Sunday morning. The collapsed equipment was discovered Dec. 27 by staff of Enel North America, the Andover, Mass., company that owns the project, while doing routine monitoring of their equipment. ..."You can have all the experts in the world conduct all the studies in a lab, but the real learning happens in the field."

Marvin DeKing already was up and awake between 3 and 4 a.m. when he heard a loud bang. "It sounded like thunder and lightning," said DeKing, of 5206 Buyea Road in this rural town east of Cazenovia. But it wasn't until daylight that DeKing learned what had caused the noise: The 187 ton windmill across the road from his house had fallen over and lay sprawled in the cornfield in which it stood.

"I was turning over in bed and it sounded like a big clap of thunder" said Jill Van Allen, who lives across the street. "I was waiting to see the lightning through my bedroom window (but didn't)".