GM restarts EV production at Factory Zero amid fire investigation

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General Motors resumed production of electric vehicles at Factory Zero on Wednesday morning after a fire filled much of the plant with heavy smoke the evening prior, prompting an evacuation of the building and a work halt.

Both the automaker and the Detroit Fire Department said they are continuing to investigate the cause of the fire. It occurred in a shipping dock area and involved lithium ion batteries.

GM spokeswoman Tara Kuhnen told the Detroit Free Press on Wednesday morning that “most departments are operational again at the plant, including vehicle assembly. All others will be notified by their leadership when to return. Safety remains our overriding priority.”

Employees at Factory Zero in Detroit and Hamtramck assemble an early model Cruise Origin, a self-driving vehicle.

Kuhnen said employees who work the first shift resumed their jobs at the standard time of 6 a.m. Wednesday.

Late Tuesday afternoon, the Detroit Fire Department called for a three-alarm fire at the factory and brought out 18 firetrucks and 60 firefighters. The fire department was able to extinguish the fire and evacuate the building with no injuries, Detroit Fire Chief James Harris said. He said the fire involved “some lithium ion batteries.”

“We’re still doing a thorough investigation,” Harris said Wednesday morning. “With the size of the building, we want to make sure this investigation is solid, so we’re still investigating as we speak.”

According to GM’s website, Factory Zero is 4.5 million square feet and straddles both Detroit and Hamtramck. About 1,880 people work at the facility where GM assembles its GMC Hummer all-electric pickup and SUV and the Chevrolet Silverado EV work truck. It had been building Cruise Origin EVs until GM’s self-driving subsidiary Cruise halted production last month due to an Oct. 2 accident in San Francisco between a Cruise vehicle and a pedestrian.

This is the second fire at the plant in recent months. According to documents the Free Press obtained under the state Freedom of Information Act, the Detroit Fire Department said in an Oct. 25 report there was “an autonomous electric car fire” inside the factory that water sprinklers helped extinguish. The report stated the ventilation system was not operating correctly and did not allow smoke to exit the building in a timely manner. The car fire consisted of a “battery fire, toxins and smoke was in the air.”

Kuhnen said: “Our investigation into the incident on October 25^th indicates all safety systems operated correctly. We learned that the cause was a non-battery related component that has since been corrected.”

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