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A Vehicle Caught Fire At GM Milford Proving Ground

A fire occurred inside an engineering lab at the GM Milford Proving Grounds in Michigan over the weekend.

General Motors is now investigating the cause of the fire. According to a report from Detroit Free Press, which cites a statement by Brighton Area Fire Authority Chief Mike O’Brian, the fire started on Sunday around 6:30 a.m. local time.

GM’s fire brigade was the first to notice smoke coming from the building and called 911. Brighton and Milford firefighters responded and were able to quickly extinguish the blaze. According to O’Brian, the fire was largely extinguished by the building’s sprinkler system by the time firefighters arrived on the scene.

“It was a vehicle that started the fire,” O’Brian said. “How it started? We don’t know that. That’s under investigation. There were no injuries. There was smoke throughout the structure and we worked with GM to get the smoke evacuated.”

Employees are expected to return to work at the lab later this week.

According to GM spokeswoman Maria Raynal, the fire was related to the “12V system” on a “development vehicle.” However, although the automaker declined to specify whether the development vehicle in question was all-electric or an internal combustion engine, Fire Chief O’Brian did recently make a statement to WWJ Newsradio 950 outlining the hazards of EV development, saying “You’re gonna see a lot more events that when there’s a fire involving an electrified vehicle or an energy stored system. You’re going to see a lot more protection of the exposures in allowing the fire event to burn itself out or to consume itself.”

The GM Milford Proving Ground first opened in 1924 as the industry’s first dedicated automobile test facility, and now includes 4,800 staff and 142 buildings, as well as 132 miles of test roads.

Recently, General Motors was faced with a lawsuit levied against the automaker by Milford residents accusing GM of contaminating the local drinking water.

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Jonathan is an automotive journalist based out of Southern California. He loves anything and everything on four wheels.

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Comments

  1. So we know it was a battery fire. We just don’t know if it was an ICE or EV. Would be strange to have an ICE fire in the building.

    Reply
    1. Why would it be strange?

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      1. Generally spontaneous electrical fires shouldn’t happen in ICE vehicles. Most ICE fire warnings I’ve seen are fairly specific, such as very affordable (<$20k) vehicle at risk due to rain water getting into the doors' electronics. But this vehicle caught on fire inside a building. The article also appears to imply that the building was unattended since firefighters outside were the first to observe and respond. Of course it's still possible that it was an ICE fire, but that would be strange. The good news is the sprinkler system stopped it, so even if it were an EV fire, it wasn't an out-of-control battery fire.

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        1. Did you notice that this is at Milford? Vehicles here are mainly pre-production test vehicles, cars that have been heavily modified and instrumented, or intentionally abused.

          Most normal cars don’t have racks of data acquisition and telemetry equipment installed, but that’s exactly what they do in Milford.

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          1. How many fires does Milford have? I found none, so blaming the racks or telemetry equipment seems spurious to me. Besides, the fire chief said the vehicle was the source in the article.

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      2. Because Richard P is throwing something against the wall to see if it’ll stick.

        Reply
  2. 10 or 20 years ago Ford had cruse control units start fires when the vehicle was parked. Ford told the owners to disconnect the 12v connector and not to park in the garage.

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  3. gm should of took their own advice and parked the bolt 50ft away.

    Reply
    1. I’d love to up vote you on this, but you wrote “should of”.

      Reply
      1. Beat me to it haha

        Reply
      2. People actually stress getting upvotes?

        Reply
        1. Yes their is a lot of very insecure people on here that complain when they get downvoted.

          Reply
  4. As a retired NYC Fire Capt. the interesting part of this article is The Fire Chief saying that their procedure will be to protect the exposures, ( which are the structures adjacent to the Fire Bldg ). Water and electricity don’t mix well. Lithium ion Batteries would be best extinguished with something other than water. I would think that if an electrical fire involving Lithium ion materials of a considerable amount would be difficult to extinguish and possibly destroy the bldg.

    Reply
  5. Earth shattering news, I will sleep better tonight! Thank you Jo Lo, your articles are always informative and exciting!

    Reply
    1. Get his ass Bill

      Reply
    2. J Lo makes it so easy, I can’t help myself!

      Reply
  6. One part of this article confuses me. What exactly does the water contamination thing have to do with a vehicle fire inside of a GM garage. Maybe GM Authority throwing something against the wall to see if it’ll stick?

    Reply
  7. People trying to make something out of nothing.

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    1. Reply
  8. Joe,
    I couldn’t agree with you more!!! What does an unrelated lawsuit have to do with this fire. Nothing other than to try damage the reputation of the Milford Proving Ground and GM

    GM Authority-Shame on you

    Reply

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