Late yesterday afternoon, concerns rose as smoke could be seen coming from Tesla’s main factory based in Fremont, California. The smoke turned out to be coming from Tesla’s huge Giga press machine that had started a small fire which was put out shortly after igniting. No injuries have been reported.
Luckily this wasn’t a catastrophic event, but still concerning none the less. Teslarati first reported that smoke could be seen rising from Tesla’s Giga press and it wasn’t long before the words “Tesla” and “Fire” were plastered across headlines. As mentioned above the fire was quickly extinguished and no injuries have been reported.
According to reports, several onlookers were standing close by so the imagery of a big explosion that may be playing out in some people’s head is far from what occurred. Instead, it was small fire which resulted in some smoke caused by molten aluminum and hydraulic fluid.
Tesla’s in-house Fire Response Team was able to stop the fire from spreading with the help of the Fremont Fire Department, and extinguished it with sand. The Fremont Fire Department commented after the incident: “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.”
Fortunately there were no injuries, however, that doesn’t mean this small fire doesn’t spell big setbacks for the EV giant. Without knowing the true extent of damage to the Giga Press, its hard to tell what kind of repairs it may need or whether it will affect Tesla’s production numbers.