Center For Design Facilities General Motors Ludes Dilap Api, Car Concept Rusak

Pasadena design facility for GM cars before it caught fire. (Photo: GM)

JAKARTA A large fire broke out in a design facility owned by General Motors (GM) in Pasadena, California, United States, Wednesday, October 22. Hundreds of firefighters and teams were deployed to tackle incidents reportedly damaging concept cars being developed by the company.

The Pasadena design center consists of an area of 149,000 square feet (about 1,400 square meters) located on an area of about eight hectares, part of GM's 71 million US dollars investment, or equivalent to Rp1.18 trillion several years ago.

According to Pasadena Fire Department spokesman Lisa Derderian, most of the damage to buildings was caused by smoke and water from the sprinkler system. He said that the incident was one of the biggest fires ever to have occurred in Pasadena in recent years.

Firefighters said the presence of lithium-ion batteries in the building made it difficult to extinguish the extinguishing process because the fire was difficult to control and produced thick smoke. Luckily, there were no casualties in this incident, although an officer was trapped and had to be rescued by his colleagues.

GM representatives in their official statement stated that the fire only occurred in one unit of the concept car and was prevented from spreading to other vehicles or to the main building structure. However, this incident still raises concerns because the facility is one of GM's future design development centers.

"The isolated fire only occurred in one design concept vehicle and did not spread to other vehicles, the design concept, or the building itself," said a GM spokesman, as quoted from Roadandtrack, Friday, October 24.

Pasadena facilities have an important role in the development of electric vehicles, futuristic designs, and light material research for GM product lines in the future. This fire has the potential to disrupt the research schedule and development of several important company projects.

Authorities are still evaluating the building structure to ensure post-incident damage and security levels. Meanwhile, GM has not announced the value of the loss nor the long-term impact on their design activities.