Reports came in late yesterday that there was smoke rising from the area around Tesla's main factory in Fremont, California. As it turns out, one of the automaker's giant Giga Press machines had a small fire. It was quickly put out with sand, and no injuries have been reported.
As soon as we saw the breaking news, even before we knew the details or knew if it was true, we figured it would end up all over the news. Tesla and "fire" in the same title is something most media outlets will jump on. Hopefully, they did their homework and learned that this wasn't any sort of catastrophe, but it's still concerning for many reasons.
Teslarati reported that as smoke was rising from the Giga Press area, onlookers were standing beside it, so it doesn't seem like it was very serious. We're not talking about a raging fire that encompassed and destroyed a whole site, but rather, a smaller flame and a bit of smoke caused by molten aluminum and hydraulic fluid.
The Fremont fire department, along with Tesla's in-house Fire Response Team were able to stop the fire from spreading and extinguish it with sand, rather than water. The Fremont fire department shared:
"Fremont firefighters coordinated the firefighting effort with the Tesla Fire Response Team.
The fire is under control. Two Fremont Fire engines and one truck remain at the scene monitoring the fire.
The cause of the fire is molten aluminum and hydraulic fluid. Hydraulic fluid was identified as the source of the fire.
There are no reports of injuries to Tesla or Fremont Fire personnel. "
The question now is related to whether or not this will force any setbacks for Tesla. One would assume it could slow production, especially related to the Model Y. However, we don't know exactly what was damaged, if parts need to be replaced, or if a larger repair effort is necessary.
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Sources: Teslarati, KTVU FOX 2 San Francisco