As we've all sadly learned since 2016, when it comes to actual events that happen in real life, there's no such thing as "too on the nose." If you've been living under a rock for the last decade and need proof, look no further than the fact that a Faraday Future FF91 caught fire on Sunday at the startup's Los Angeles headquarters and caused an explosion that did enough damage for the city's Department of Building and Safety to red-tag the building. Until someone can come in and figure out how much structural work is needed to make it safe, it'll have to sit empty, TechCrunch reports.
The good news is, no one died in the explosion, and no injuries have been reported so far. it doesn't appear that there's much concern that the building itself might collapse, either. That's at least partly related to the fact that the FF91 fire and the ensuing explosion took place in a two-story building next to the main structure. Still, emergency crews reportedly needed 40 minutes to put out the fire, and the explosion blew a hole in the wall.
That's not great, but it's also probably better than you expected when you saw the headline that Faraday Future had an explosion at its headquarters. Either that, or you just assumed the building was empty because there was no way Faraday Future could still be in business, right?
In a statement, Faraday Future's spokesperson told TechCrunch, "We are aware of a fire at our facility yesterday, there were no injuries to FF staff, and no evacuation was required, and the specific cause and origin of the fire is under investigation."
Statement on Fire Incident at Faraday Future Satellite Office Building
In the early morning of Sunday, September 28 (PST), a fire occurred at FF’s satellite office building at our U.S. headquarters. The company attaches great importance to this matter and would like to provide…
The decade-old startup (it's not a company, and I refuse to call it a company until it sells more than a handful of cars) also posted a statement on Twitter that gave more details. Allegedly, "all operations at our headquarters remain unaffected," although that's easy to say when you're an automaker that doesn't make any autos and may have faked its early sales. But hey, at least the reveal of its "new" rebadged Chinese minivan was also a complete disaster.
FF also wants you to know that the car that caught on fire was "one of the earliest FF 91 beta vehicles. Its powertrain and battery pack (using 18650-type cylindrical cells) have been in service for nearly nine years, and its interior materials do not meet the flammability standards of production vehicles. This beta prototype is entirely different from FF 91 production vehicles, and therefore we believe this incident will not result in any recall of production models." So that's good news for all, what, three (?) mega-millionaires who have a "production" FF91 in their collections for some reason.
As for what started the fire that caused the explosion, you'll probably want to wait for the investigators to finish their work and release an official report, but Faraday Future claimed in its statement, "Early indications suggest that possible causes might include an electrical short circuit in the showroom wiring or a short circuit related to a loose connection in the vehicle's 12V low-voltage system."