General Motors received more bad news on Tuesday evening: A chemical explosion at the company’s metal-stamping plant near Fort Wayne, IN, left one person dead and eight others injured.

Local police officials confirmed the explosion Tuesday, saying four people were treated for non-life-threatening injuries and four others were discharged without requiring any treatment, United Press International reports.

The person who died in the explosion was an employee of Quaker Chemical Corp., a maker of specialty chemicals.

Authorities told UPI that when the explosion occurred, employees were evacuated and fire department and other emergency personnel responded.

The metal-stamping plant provides tampings and sheet-metal assembly for multiple GM models throughout North America and employs more than 1,600 people.

General Motors officials said they canceled the third shift Tuesday, but expected to resume operations Wednesday.

GM is currently under fire for its actions surrounding an ignition switch defect that has so far resulted in at least 13 deaths.

In February, GM recalled 2.6 million vehicles because extra weight on key rings, or a jarring event, could cause the ignition to switch off, which in turn could disable the airbags and cause the vehicle to crash. In May, the company was slapped with a $35 million fine for waiting 13 years to acknowledge the defect it knew about before the first recalled vehicles hit the road.

That recall has propelled the company to undertake significant safety inventories resulting in the recall of more than 25 million vehicles in the last six months.

Explosion at GM plant kills one, eight injured taken to hospital (United Press International)

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