A fire broke out at the Tesla plant in Fremont, California, on Thursday, though no injuries were reported.
Here’s the San Francisco Chronicle:
A piece of machinery containing molten metal caught fire at Tesla’s Fremont car factory Thursday afternoon, authorities said.
Hydraulic fluid, a flammable liquid used to power machines, was identified as the source of the fire, said Aisha Knowles, a spokeswoman for Fremont Fire. Firefighters arriving on scene around 4:27 p.m. were initially told not to use water to extinguish the flames.
The fire was confined to a vehicle stamping machine that contained molten aluminum, Knowles said. The machinery was located in a building under construction at the 45500 Fremont Boulevard plant.
Firefighters and Tesla employees controlled the fire using sand bags, she said. No injuries were reported.
And here is a long video in which you can see smoke emerge at several points:
Electrek says that the machine that caught on fire was the so-called Gigapress, a giant stamping machine that makes Model Y underbodies. How this will affect production is anyone’s guess, though the people that operate Tesla’s factory in Fremont have to, at this point, be ready for basically any contingency.
You know, after the tent and production “hell” and all of that. They’ve been through so much that at this point, and still banging out cars (even with questionable build quality) at a greater and greater pace, to such a degree that the Tesla plant is approaching a veneer of invincibility. The world may be ending but by God Model Ys will be produced.