Black smoke seen in St. Charles skies was from Ameristar backup generator

ST. LOUIS, Mo. (First Alert 4) - Black smoke seen near the Ameristar Casino in St. Charles Saturday was caused by back-up generators starting at the casino.

According to the St. Charles Fire Department, black smoke that could be seen from Interstate 70 was caused by the initial start-up of Ameristar’s backup generators.

The casino had to activate the generators after a transformer fire caused an outage in the area, the department said.

Ameren said its substation near the casino experienced an equipment issue, which caused an outage for around 250 people in the area. Ameren said they were able to restore power 90 minutes after the equipment issue.