An explosion this morning at the General Motors Technical Center in Warren seriously injured one worker and nearly destroyed a research facility.
One person working in a battery research laboratory was taken to St. John Hospital and Medical Center in Detroit, Warren Fire Commissioner Wilburt (Skip) McAdams said.
McAdams said the injured man was “in a lot of pain” and had injuries that could have been “life-threatening.” Later, a GM spokesman said the worker was expected to recover and would be held overnight for observation.
GM said the incident occurred at 8:45 a.m. at the Alternative Energy Center at its sprawling research campus in Warren. Engineers were conducting “extreme testing on a prototype battery” when the incident occurred, the company said in a statement.
McAdams said early results of the fire departmentÂ’s investigation indicate the explosion could not be traced back to a battery problem.
“We think it was a chemical explosion,” he said.
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