Chemical Explosion at Battery Testing Site

[Rich Parsons]

http://www.freep.com/article/20120411/BUSINESS0101/120411015/1014/business01

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 department’s investigation indicate the explosion could not be traced back to a battery problem.
“We think it was a chemical explosion,” he said.

...

 

[Jenna]

http://www.freep.com/article/20120411/BUSINESS0101/120411015/1014/business01

Wow that sounds like extreme testing indeed. Is this where you work also? Glad he is ok.

 

[Rich Parsons]

Wow that sounds like extreme testing indeed. Is this where you work also? Glad he is ok.

I work at another site about an hour away. Our testing is on more mature products (* usually *) and on a test bench , dynamometer, and vehicle.