General Motors recalls hundreds of thousands of trucks over risk of fire

General Motors has announced a massive recall of hundreds of thousands of trucks after reports that they could catch fire.

Here's what we know

This latest recall effects 368,000 medium and heavy-duty diesel trucks. Roughly 324,000 of these trucks are in the United States, according to ABC News. The optional engine block heater in these trucks can reportedly short circuit, causing a fire, if the coolant leaks or the cable is damaged.

GM began investigating this issue in December after receiving a report of the malfunction from an engineer with the company, who had noticed the problem during an inspection of a returned engine block heater.

This report came as part of GM's "Speak up for Safety" program, which was created in 2014 to encourage employees to notify management about any issues that could affect the safety of customers.

At least 19 GM trucks worldwide have reportedly caught on fire from this malfunction. There have been no reports of fatalities or injuries caused by this issue to date.

On April 25, GM instructed dealers to immediately stop selling any of the affected truck models until further notice.

Owners of these vehicles have not yet been notified of a recall or instructed on how to rectify this issue, ABC News said. GM did stop selling the optional engine block heaters in April, and has asked customers to stop using the heaters for now.

What trucks are being recalled?

The following trucks are included in this recall, provided that they have the optional engine block heater:

• 2019 Chevrolet Silverado 4500
• 2019 Chevrolet Silverado 5500
• 2019 Chevrolet Silverado 6500
• 2017 Chevrolet Silverado
• 2018 Chevy Silverado
• 2019 Chevy Silverado
• GMC Sierra 2500
• GMC Sierra 3500

GM is still trying to figure out what caused the flaw and how to fix it, but said that it was trying "to obtain the required parts as quickly as possible."