Firefighters responded to a small fire at the Tesla Inc. plant. from Fremont, California, Thursday afternoon.
“Located in an area of the factory property that is under construction, the deep fire was engulfed in a stamping machine that manufactured the vehicles,” the Fremont Fire Department, which referred to Tesla’s giant stamping machine, said Thursday night. – called Giga Press. “The cause of the fire is molten aluminum and hydraulic fluid. The hydraulic fluid has been identified as a source of fire. ”
No injuries were reported.
The video of a news helicopter showed that the fire was extinguished, with firefighters and Tesla workers lingering around a covered, open-air structure containing machinery, far from the main factory building. Light streaks of smoke were visible.
According to the Electrek news blog, Giga Press is a huge casting machine that was installed last year at the Fremont factory and is used to stamp large pieces of vehicle body parts. Electrek has speculated that the damage caused to Giga Press could affect production, although to what extent it is still unknown.
Tesla did not respond to a request for comment or details, but dissolved its media department last year.
The Fremont plant has approximately 10,000 employees and produces Model S, Model 3, Model X and Model Y electric vehicles.
Another small fire broke out in the unit in August 2018, without causing injuries and did not affect production.
The Fremont plant was shut down for two days last month over what CEO Elon Musk called a “lack of parts.”
Tesla shares TSLA,
gained almost 5% on Thursday, but are flat so far compared to a 5% gain for the S&P 500 SPX,
this year.