(KRON) -- A thermal runaway at an Archer Aviation facility in San Jose injured three people Tuesday morning, according to a report from the company to the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services. Approximately 100 people were evacuated during the event, Archer Aviation stated.
The incident occurred just before 10:30 a.m. at the electric aerospace company’s facility located at 77 Rio Robles. In its report, Archer said the thermal runaway involved 30 individual Molicel batteries and was “due to an employee error.” Molicel, a battery cell manufacturer, describes a thermal runaway as “a dangerous chain reaction in lithium batteries, causing the battery to overheat, potentially fail, catch fire, or even explode.”
Three people were evaluated for their injuries sustained in the thermal runaway event and released, Archer stated. All evacuations at the facility have since been lifted.
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The Molicels were wheeled into a remediation station and submerged into a suppression tank, according to the company. A fire watch team will monitor the batteries through Wednesday morning.
Republic Services has been contracted to dispose of the involved batteries and any other cleanup required.
Archer is headquartered nearby at 190 West Tasman Dr.
