The Normal Fire Department responded to a fire on May 28 at Rivian’s assembly plant in Illinois. No injuries were sustained during the incident and damage was minimal but it is the third such fire that the plant has suffered in seven months.
The NFD said in a statement that the cause of the fire was a defective battery pack that ignited inside the Rivian Automotive plant. When firefighters arrived, the pack was inside the building experiencing thermal runaway in the battery testing area.
“We evacuated a portion of the Normal Plant on Saturday as standard practice during a thermal event affecting a single battery pack,” a Rivian spokesperson told us in an email. “The pack had already been identified as faulty and was undergoing additional testing when the event occurred. Our Environmental, Health, and Safety team is investigating the cause with our engineering team and the Normal Fire Department, which responded promptly.”
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