GM suffers a fire at its new Advanced Design Centre

General Motors suffered a fire at its new Advanced Design Centre campus last week. Fire crews were called to the $71 million, 149,000 square foot facility in the late afternoon of 22 October. Heavy smoke necessitated extra alarms resulting in a massive four-alarm response, complete with ambulances, hazmat crews and a number of specialised teams.

The campus was safely evacuated, and there were no injuries to GM personnel or first responders.

The cause remains under investigation, but there is concern that the fire started in a lithium battery pack – though this remains to be seen. The campus was closed the remainder of the week for investigation, and then clean-up, which will be an intensive process in itself.

GM issued a statement that read, in part, “We’re grateful that all employees and first responders are safe and accounted for. The isolated fire was contained to a single design concept vehicle and did not spread to any other vehicles, design concepts, or the building itself. We thank the responding fire departments for their swift action in extinguishing the fire.”

GM did not identify the concept car lost in the blaze.

As for the fire department, Pasadena City spokesperson Lisa Derderian confirmed the massive response – over 100 firefighters – noting the size and complex layout of the campus, combined with the presence of hazardous materials (batteries, petrol, others) necessitated a forceful and aggressive deployment by the Pasadena Fire Department. She also noted it was the largest response by the fire department in many years.

She closed her briefing by wishing GM the best as it cleans up and gets back to business.

“We’ve been boasting about bringing new technology, jobs and name recognition into our city,” said Derderian during a briefing about the fire. “We’re hoping they are able to get back in business in a timely manner.”