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Breaking: Battery-Related Fire At GM Factory Zero Plant

A fire has broken out at the GM Factory Zero plant, formerly known as the GM Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly plant, tonight, December 19th.

The conflagration at the GM factory seems to have either started with a large cache of EV batteries or has been significantly worsened by the batteries catching fire after the blaze started elsewhere.

The GMC Hummer EV Pickup, produced at GM Factory Zero.

The GM Factory Zero fire is described as a “three-alarm fire call,” which is defined as a combustion large enough that three times the normal number of trucks, firefighters, and firefighting devices are dispatched to the scene compared to those sent to an ordinary fire. A two-alarm fire call is the largest that is sent to a normal fire, with three-alarm and higher calls reserved for “large-scale” blazes likely to take hours to extinguish. A 16-alarm fire in New York in 1995 involved over 700 firefighters to halt an inferno in a hotel complex.

Firefighters are currently engaging the conflagration inside the GM Factory Zero complex. According to reports and chatter on emergency scanner frequencies, the fire has not yet been contained and is still spreading through the complex. Adding to the violence of the fire, “multiple” bins of lithium-ion EV batteries – components of the GM Ultium battery tech – are ablaze.

According to the scanners, the intensity of the lithium-ion flames is increasing the difficulty of getting the fire under control.

The Ultium logo.

GM has issued several brief statements to the media since the blaze began. The most recent indicate that the workers at the GM Factory Zero plant are “safe,” presumably meaning there are no known employee injuries or deaths at this point in the firefighting effort.

Additionally, the automaker says further EV production at the facility is canceled, at least for tonight. Factory Zero currently builds the GMC Hummer EV SUV, the GMC Hummer EV Pickup, and the Chevy Silverado EV. GM was set to begin building the GMC Sierra EV and the Cadillac Escalade IQ at the facility in the medium-term future.

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Comments

  1. Not good. I hope everyone is OK. That material is toxic to firefighters, and if a whole stockpile of batteries caught fire then that’s not going to be put out any time soon.

    On a sidenote, if anyone has direction to the right scanner I’d appreciate it.

    Reply
    1. Uniden HP1 or HP2. You can connect to the internet and update frequencies. They don’t change much here. Enter ZIP code, town name or connect GPS if you’re driving (where allowed). I have had one of each for several years. Had to replace memory card in one. Eliminate categories/frequencies of no interest and scan the others faster. I listen to police, fire and aircraft. $400-$500.

      Reply
  2. Per Barra’s recent euphemism regarding her grand EV vision/nightmare: “BUMPY”. Indeed it is, Mary. Indeed it is. Glad to hear no humans were harmed so far.

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  3. lol “conflagration”, going for a Pulitzer?

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    1. Or, got bored with writing “fire fire fire fire fire fire fire” a hundred times in a row. Might be that, too. 😉

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  4. Glad everyone is safe. This is pretty much symbolic of this rushed and forced EV push. Just lighten up with it already.

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  5. It won’t be long till most auto companies scale back or halt the EV push completely. Already they have their scape goat. The NYSE next year is introducing “natural resource corporations” basically their allowing you to purchase stocks in places like the redwood forest and you can “offset” your emissions with trees. It’s the ultimate virtue signaling. Might be worse than clanging your twitter profile to an Ukraine flag.

    Reply
    1. I haven’t heard of this and without knowing any details, something like this actually sounds better than an arbitrary ESG score used to pick winners and losers.

      Reply
    2. I love trees and have several large ones.

      Reply
      1. Trees are lovely, natural environment enhancers. EV are nowhere near the level of a tree, in fact they are opposite.

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  6. How can you get rid of a factory that you now realized you shouldn’t have built in the first place?

    You light a match…..

    Reply
    1. D-Ham has been there for a long time, and has built many great cars until recently.

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      1. Yeah, it was built in 1983 as a part of a eminent domain landgrab between GM and the City of Detroit…..I know its history, but Hamtramck Assembly and Factory Zero are pretty much 2 different things at this point…..

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  7. Update on the fire please.

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    1. Initial report states a fork truck punctured a container that had battery material in it, resulting in a fire.

      Reply
  8. I’m pretty sure I don’t want one of these in my garage.

    Reply
  9. Love our Tesla but it parks/charges in a non- attached garage well separated from other buildings.

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  10. You think this make the national news, but can’t seem to find anywhere yet.

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  11. Besides the electrolyte being flammable AF, the whole lithium-ion thing is pretty inefficient. They know how to make lithium metal batteries with a nonflammable electrolyte, and they’re very energy-dense. I see Li-ion as the “compact fluorescent” of batteries until better technologies become more widespread; besides lithium metal, graphene aluminum-ion looks promising as well.

    Reply
  12. You just can’t make this EV “stuff” up.

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  13. this could be your house if you have an EV in the garage

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  14. First and foremost, hoping all are safe, including employees, the first responders, and the general public nearby if this is creating a toxic atmosphere to breathe in.

    Really interested to hear what the source was once the fire investigators have a chance to do so.

    Reply
  15. IC engines don’t burn like that. Just say’n

    Reply
    1. Because the combustion is internal 🙂 !

      Reply
  16. GM better put mary on susicde watch

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  17. Just got to be bad for the environment,well that’s the future brought to you by guess who. The space rockets and wars and volcanos and the tectonic plates moving are the real reasons for climate change right folks. Why does someone people keep hitting the auto industry . There needs to be harmony will ice and evs (hybrids ) . Well I love my classic hot rods too and to take that away is a cardinal sin. Let work on this and be truly inclusive and not some one sided power tripper always pushing their agenda.Be safe everyone

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  18. I hate to see how much auto and home insurance will go up if a person buys an EV now. Property liability, etc. There needs to be a better zero emission engine than these environmental disaster lithium ion ones.

    Reply
  19. It would not surprise me if someone set it on purpose nor if someone got paid to do it just so it makes the news even if the fire was unrelated to the batteries which by default is in it. Time will tell. I hope not.

    Reply

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