General Motors suspended production at its Factory Zero in Detroit and Hamtramck overnight Tuesday after a fire broke out at the plant.
Detroit Fire Chief James Harris told the Detroit Free Press that the fire department declared the third fire alarm late Tuesday afternoon so that it would have enough manpower to fight the fire.
“It ended up being lithium-ion batteries,” Harris said of the fire. He confirmed that there was heavy smoke in large parts of the 4.5 million square meter facility.
“No firefighters, civilians or GM employees were injured, but we evacuated the building as a precaution and it is still smoldering,” Harris said Tuesday around 6:15 p.m. “We are still on scene to ensure no one is injured and we continue to investigate the cause.”
According to GM's website, about 1,880 people work at the factory. GM builds its all-electric GMC Hummer pickup and SUV as well as the Chevrolet Silverado EV work truck at the plant. The company had been building Cruise Origin electric vehicles until GM's self-driving subsidiary Cruise halted production last month following an Oct. 2 accident between a Cruise vehicle and a pedestrian in San Francisco.
GM spokeswoman Tara Kuhnen told the Detroit Free Press that there was a fire incident at Factory Zero on Tuesday afternoon. She said all employees have been accounted for, everyone is safe and GM is “investigating the situation and will provide further details as they become available.”
“We are still working on getting all the details,” Kuhnen said. “The crew is on the ground. But the second shift was canceled for the night.”
In an updated comment around 7:30 p.m., Kuhnen said: “We can confirm that there was a fire at Factory Zero today and all employees are safe. The fire had nothing to do with the vehicle but occurred near a boat dock. We are still investigating the cause.”
Harris said there were about 60 Detroit firefighters and 18 trucks at the scene.
“Our primary concern right now is to make sure no one returns to this building and no one gets hurt,” Harris said.
This is the second fire at the plant in recent months. According to a Freedom of Information Act filing by the Free Press last month, the Detroit Fire Department said in an Oct. 25 report that there was “an autonomous electric vehicle fire” at the factory that water sprinklers helped put out. The report found that the ventilation system did not function properly and did not allow smoke to escape the building in a timely manner. The car fire consisted of a “battery fire, toxins and smoke were in the air.”
Kuhnen said: “Our investigation into the October 25 incident found that all security systems were functioning properly. We learned the cause was a non-battery-related component, which has since been resolved.”
More: The GM subsidiary Cruise wants to cut 24% of its workforce due to the crisis following a pedestrian accident
More: GM is laying off 1,300 workers at two Michigan plants as it halts vehicle production
Contact Jamie L. LaReau: [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @jlareauan. Read more about General Motors and subscribe to our automotive newsletter. Become a subscriber.