Yesterday afternoon, shortly before 5:00 p.m. PST, reports rolled in from firefighters in Fremont, California that a fire had broken out at Tesla’s assembly plant.
The fire had started near Tesla’s southern fence and was initially incorrectly reported as an explosion by some, prompting a bit of a scare and essentially making all of Twitter play detective in an attempt to figure out what happened. Eventually, it was brought to light that the event started in a pile of cardboard which Tesla said was waiting to be recycled when it caught fire for an unknown reason.
Firefighters quickly responded to the scene and extinguished the blaze with no reported injuries. The automaker and fire company both performed investigations surrounding the source of the fire, but have not released any details to the public about how it began.
A nearby non-permanent structure that resembles a tent appears to have been damaged in the blaze, as well as a nearby section of grass. When word of the tent being damaged got out, a plethora of concerned Tweets arose regarding Tesla’s GA4 tent where Model 3 production takes place. Tesla CEO Elon Musk was quick to dispel any rumors that claimed otherwise by Tweeting that no damage to the factory occurred.
“This evening, some cardboard and shipping materials being prepared for recycling on our southern fence line caught fire, along with a small patch of grass next to a Tesla parking lot.” a Tesla spokesperson told The Drive, “The fire is now contained. We would like to thank the Fremont Fire Department for their rapid response. There are no injuries and we are investigating the cause.”
A small fire had reportedly broken out in the welding area of Tesla’s production line according to a memo published earlier this year. Fortunately, this event did not cause any downtime to the production line and Tesla is still cranking away Model 3s without a hitch.