Explosion at Stellantis minivan plant in Ontario 'an intentional act,' police believe

Investigators with the Windsor Police Service on Friday were investigating what they called “an intentional” explosion at Stellantis’ Windsor Assembly Plant.

Police were called to the automaker’s minivan factory in Windsor, Ont., at about 5:45 p.m. ET on Thursday. The facility was evacuated and police said in a statement Friday afternoon that no one was injured and there was never an active fire as a result of the explosion. About 2,000 people were inside the facility at the time of the blast.

Production resumed on Friday's midnight shift. Stellantis security began checking employees' bags and lunchbuckets on the way in and out of the plant Friday.

Police on Friday said suspicious items were located at the explosion site and police launched an probe. 

The scene was contained and the explosive disposal unit (EDU), K-9 Unit, forensic identification unit and arson unit all are part of the investigation.

Police can’t yet say what exactly exploded.

“Through investigation, EDU located a suspicious package that detonated. Further examination and testing of the package will occur as part of the investigation,” the service said in a statement. “It should be noted that the suspicious device was located in the area of the facility not generally used for general work and acts as storage facility. The incident occurred on the west side of the facility on the second floor.

"Investigators do believe this was an intentional act and are seeking any information that may help identify a suspect or suspects."

Police initially called the suspicious package “an improvised explosive device,” but quickly retracted and clarified that statement.

“The definition of a previous posting calling the suspicious package an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) was inaccurate as all the components have yet to be tested,” the police said in a statement. “The threshold to confirm as an IED has yet to be met.”

Stellantis confirmed the incident, which halted production for a few hours.

“There was an incident in a vacant section of the Windsor Assembly Plant yesterday afternoon. No injuries were reported … and an investigation is ongoing,” the automaker said in a statement. “Out of an abundance of caution, the plant was evacuated.  

“We are fully cooperating with authorities.  As this is an ongoing investigation, we cannot comment further.  The plant has been deemed safe to continue production.

“Our employee health and safety, as well as the safety of the community are our top priority.”

Unifor Local 444 President David Cassidy addressed the incident on the local’s official Facebook page.

“There is not much information to come out at this point, but they are doing an investigation, and we are cooperating,” he wrote. ”It is essential to make sure when our members go to work, they feel safe and secure.

“Over the last couple of weeks, there have been some incidents going on in the plant based on anxieties. I know we have had some hard news as of late, but any lashing out in the facilities cannot and will not be accepted and needs to stop.”

He didn’t elaborate. 

“All our livelihoods depend on the future of the plant,” Cassidy wrote. “Any antics will negatively affect our reputation and our future, that is a fact.”

Tensions are high among some of the unionized employees. Several Unifor member rallied outside the union’s national headquarters Wednesday to protest the Detroit Three’s vaccine mandates, which, beginning in December, will require all employees, contractors and visitors to be fully vaccinated.

Stellantis also announced on Oct. 15 that it would be reducing the Windsor minivan plant to a one-shift operation, beginning in April 2022. The cut would affect about 1,800 jobs.