The site where Corvettes and other General Motors vehicles have been tested for more than 100 years was near an explosion that damaged two homes and an oil storage tank early Tuesday morning, according to a report in the Detroit Free Press.
The explosion at Milford Proving Ground – which just celebrated its 100th anniversary with a birthday party in September – occurred about 6:49 a.m. at a tank not owned or operated by General Motors, which leases such space to third parties for oil wells and storage tanks.
GM spokesman Kevin Kelly released this statement to the media: “Thankfully, no one was injured. We are aware of reports of potential property damage to the homes adjacent to the well, and we are still investigating. The Milford Proving Ground Response Team, the Brighton Fire Department and other local agencies quickly responded, and the fire has been contained.”
Firefighters from the Brighton Area Fire Authority and two dozen other departments had most of the blaze under control in about 50 minutes, though they still had to battle smaller fires for hours.
The cause of the explosion remains under investigation. Brighton Area Fire Authority Chief Michael O’Brian said two homes about 200 feet away were damaged, but the occupants inside were not hurt.
“There is decent damage to one of the adjacent homes,” O’Brian said. “Anytime a tank blows up like that … well, people are saying they felt it 5 or 6 miles away.”
Cleanup was expected to begin once a small fire still burning was extinguished, according to Josef Greenberg with the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy.
“We’ve got a cleanup crew onsite,” Greenberg said. “The groundwater is not impacted, and drinking water is not affected. The surface where the water and material from putting it out has been … confined.”
The damaged tank is owned and operated by White Rock Oil & Gas based in Plano, Texas, which is in the process of selling it to T2 Operating Corp. based in Denver, Colorado.
GM earlier celebrated the 100th birthday of the Milford Proving Ground, with company President Mark Reuss telling the crowd of more than 7,000 GM employees, retirees, and their families that gathered at the facility on Sept. 21 for a huge birthday party that the 4,000-acre site in southeastern Michigan with nearly 150 miles of roads for testing GM vehicles remains “at the heart of GM’s long history of innovation that has revolutionized the auto industry, from safety technology to Super Cruise – it’s where vehicles get better, and it’s where I started my career as a summer intern working on V6 noise and vibration.”
Milford Proving Ground
Milford Proving Ground officially opened Sept. 25, 1924, under the leadership of GM President Alfred P. Sloan, Jr. During the World War II years, GM engineers evaluated more than 680 different military vehicles and drove them over 850,000 miles at Milford as a vital part of the “Arsenal of Democracy.”
Post-war, many new roads were added at Milford, with 51 miles available for testing by 1954. Expansion continued a decade later with the 4.5-mile Circular Test Track and the Salt Splash Road, followed by the Vehicle Dynamics Test Area (the formal name for Black Lake) in 1968.
As safety standards continued to evolve beginning in the 1970s, Milford pioneered the development of crash test dummies, airbags, child seats, and anti-lock brakes. Starting in the 1990s, the facility developed and tested alternative fuel vehicles, including the groundbreaking EV1 electric car.
In the 21st century, Milford has continued to be instrumental in supporting GM’s goal of zero crashes, zero emissions, and zero congestion through a variety of initiatives.
Source:
Motor1.com
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