The Tuesday evening fire at the GM Factory Zero plant in Michigan that brought 60 firefighters and 18 fire trucks to the scene started when a forklift ran into a container full of Ultium battery assemblies destined for use in EV production, or possibly raw battery materials.
The General told Reuters and other news sources that the blaze began near a shipping dock when, as spokeswoman Tara Kuhnen explained, “a forklift accidentally punctured a container with battery materials causing the fire.”
While the volatility of the EV batteries or battery materials is perhaps notable, with a single forklift fork puncture enough to set off a significant fire, some sources report the flames were confined to the containers of lithium-ion batteries themselves. These news sources claim the blaze did not damage the factory building itself or any equipment inside it.
However, thick, toxic smoke from the battery conflagration seems to have spread through most of the facility’s interior. This forced GM to evacuate all its workers from the plant until the fire was extinguished, which halted both second and third shift work on Tuesday and prevented completion of scheduled vehicle production during that time. No workers or firefighters were injured during the incident.
Employees returned to work as normal on Wednesday morning with the exception of a few whose jobs are in the vicinity of the loading dock. Vehicle production proceeded as usual, while cleanup occurred at the fire site and both GM and the Detroit Fire Department investigated the scene.
Factory Zero is a significant production hub for GM electric vehicles, with its assembly lines churning out the GMC Hummer EV Pickup, the GMC Hummer EV SUV, and the Chevy Silverado EV at the current time. In the medium-term, the GMC Sierra EV and the Cadillac Escalade IQ will also begin production at the facility.
The plant, which was once known as known as Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly, experienced another fire on October 25th, seemingly involving, but not starting with, EV batteries. That fire was extinguished by automatic sprinkler systems.
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Comments
Sounds like we should ban EVs for public safety. Imagine the fire risks with these things parked in people’s garages and in public places. Yikes, scary!
Go back to your cave and rub some sticks together.
Better yet, just don’t stick a sharp object into a battery and you won’t have an issue.
Wait, maybe it’s union employees with an attitude like yours and they’re purposely trying to sabotage EVs. May not be so unlikely.
Yes that would be crazy if you’re parked in a public place and a forklift pierces the side of your car to cause a fire.
Gasoline is quite flammable last time I checked
And if someone punctures a gas tank thats safe 100%? LOL. So I say ban them too. Just put a whole in the floor board and move it like Fred Fintstone.
*Yabba Dabba Doo!*
So what does happen when an electric vehicles parked side by side to another ev somehow combust next to a structural member in an underground parking garage under a high-rise?
In just two days it’s gone from a “conflagration” to “causing no damage to the plant” 😐
Maybe — the person driving the forklift shouldn’t be driving a forklift — .
so 1 ,million $$$$ in damage
How are GM EV sales doing?