diff --git a/src/backend/pipelines/lcm_lora.py b/src/backend/pipelines/lcm_lora.py
index 9bd6616..093a9cc 100644
--- a/src/backend/pipelines/lcm_lora.py
+++ b/src/backend/pipelines/lcm_lora.py
@@ -1,5 +1,11 @@
 import torch
-from diffusers import DiffusionPipeline, LCMScheduler, AutoPipelineForText2Image
+from diffusers import (
+    DiffusionPipeline,
+    LCMScheduler,
+    AutoPipelineForText2Image,
+    StableDiffusionPipeline,
+)
+import pathlib
 
 
 def load_lcm_weights(
@@ -25,23 +31,44 @@ def get_lcm_lora_pipeline(
     torch_data_type: torch.dtype,
     pipeline_args={},
 ):
-    # pipeline = DiffusionPipeline.from_pretrained(
-    pipeline = AutoPipelineForText2Image.from_pretrained(
-        base_model_id,
-        torch_dtype=torch_data_type,
-        local_files_only=use_local_model,
-        **pipeline_args,
-    )
+    if pathlib.Path(base_model_id).suffix == ".safetensors":
+        # When loading a .safetensors model, the pipeline has to be created
+        # with StableDiffusionPipeline() since it's the only class that
+        # defines the method from_single_file(); afterwards a new pipeline
+        # is created using AutoPipelineForText2Image() for ControlNet
+        # support, in case ControlNet is enabled
+        dummy_pipeline = StableDiffusionPipeline.from_single_file(
+            base_model_id,
+            torch_dtype=torch_data_type,
+            safety_checker=None,
+            load_safety_checker=False,
+            local_files_only=use_local_model,
+            use_safetensors=True,
+        )
+        pipeline = AutoPipelineForText2Image.from_pipe(
+            dummy_pipeline,
+            **pipeline_args,
+        )
+        del dummy_pipeline
+    else:
+        pipeline = AutoPipelineForText2Image.from_pretrained(
+            base_model_id,
+            torch_dtype=torch_data_type,
+            local_files_only=use_local_model,
+            **pipeline_args,
+        )
 
     load_lcm_weights(
         pipeline,
         use_local_model,
         lcm_lora_id,
     )
+    # Always fuse LCM-LoRA
+    pipeline.fuse_lora()
 
     if "lcm" in lcm_lora_id.lower():
         print("LCM LoRA model detected so using recommended LCMScheduler")
         pipeline.scheduler = LCMScheduler.from_config(pipeline.scheduler.config)
 
-    pipeline.unet.to(memory_format=torch.channels_last)
+    # pipeline.unet.to(memory_format=torch.channels_last)
     return pipeline