Local
Battery incident at Archer’s San Jose site sends three for evaluation
Three people were evaluated and released after a battery thermal runaway at an Archer Aviation facility in San Jose on Tuesday. The company said about 100 people were evacuated and attributed the incident to employee error.
Three people were evaluated for injuries and released after a battery incident Tuesday morning at an Archer Aviation facility at 77 Rio Robles in San Jose, the company reported to the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services.
The incident occurred shortly before 10:30 a.m. and involved 30 Molicel battery cells, according to Archer. The company attributed the thermal runaway to “employee error.” A thermal runaway is a chain reaction in a battery that can cause it to overheat and potentially catch fire or fail.
About 100 people were evacuated, Archer said. The evacuation order was later lifted. The company said the batteries were moved to a remediation station and placed in a suppression tank. A fire-watch team was expected to monitor them through Wednesday morning.
Archer said Republic Services was hired to dispose of the batteries and handle any other cleanup. The company is headquartered at 190 West Tasman Drive, near the incident site.