Employees at San Antonio’s Toyota Texas manufacturing facility quickly extinguished flames caused by a vapor explosion at the Southside plant Thursday morning. Toyota’s own firefighters and 22 units from the San Antonio Fire Department responded to the incident just before 10 a.m.
The explosion occurred inside an external scrubber system used in painting by a supplier at the plant and resulted in a minor fire that was put out by employees, company officials said. About 200 people work in that facility.
There were no injuries, according to a Toyota spokeswoman. “Team member safety will remain our top priority while a cause is determined, and the supplier evaluates a safe return to their production,” she said.
In 2012, a Toyota firefighter was injured while responding to a fire that started on a heater above the plant’s paint shop. Reports stated that early-morning incident caused an estimated $500 in damage.
Toyota employs 3,200 people at its state-of-the-art facility that began production of the full-size Tundra in 2006 and later of the compact Tacoma pickup truck. In all, about 5,000 people work at Toyota and the 21 firms located in the on-site supplier park.
