This week, a Tesla caught fire on a highway in Pennsylvania and released poisonous gases from its lithium-ion battery for far longer than usual because it took firemen much longer to put out the fire than it would have taken for a car with a conventional internal combustion engine.
According to a statement released by the Morris Township Volunteer Fire Company #1, the incident occurred at 11 a.m. on Tuesday on Interstate 80 near the 137-mile marker.
A piece of debris that the family was driving over apparently started the fire. Everyone was able to safely exit the car in time to avoid any injuries.
As rescuers swiftly used just over 4,000 gallons of water, it became clear that this was no ordinary car fire when Engine Tanker 17 and Engine Tanker 19 arrived on the site. There was an approximate 12,000-gallon water use, according to the release. A team can usually put out a car fire that has spread throughout the whole vehicle using 500 gallons of water or less to give you an indication of the severity.
The statement went on to say that the vehicle’s lithium-ion battery made it such that water used to put out the fire would quickly rekindle, making it necessary to dispatch additional tankers. It took nearly two hours of constant water application by personnel as the vehicle’s battery repeatedly re-ignited and maintained high temperatures.
The Tesla was fully destroyed in the fire, as seen by the photos taken at the scene.
This morning, a Tesla caught fire on Interstate 80 in Clearfield County. According to the Morris Township Fire Company, the fire was extinguished after two hours of constant spraying. Burning so intensely and for so long, you might not even recognize the rims as formerly belonging to a car, according to the owner of the vehicle. pic.twitter.com/2cX6TEX6y0
As tweeted by Geoff Rushton (@GeoffRushton) on November 16, 2022
When the Morris Township Volunteer Fire Company #1 and the Grassflat Volunteer Fire Company realized they needed help, they called for the Columbia Volunteer Fire Company.
It takes a lot of water, according to the Columbia Volunteer Fire Company, to keep the batteries cool and prevent them from igniting again after the fire has been extinguished.
Business Insider noted that Tesla had had a number of issues over the years, including the company’s allegedly intentional sale of vehicles with a design flaw that could cause them to explode into flames and its allegedly lax approach to ensuring that vehicles had adequate braking systems. Also, “faulty suspension” has been blamed for causing accidents in Teslas.
While the instantaneous torque and lightning-fast acceleration of Teslas make them enjoyable to drive, some drivers have complained about the car’s reliability, poor build quality, and cumbersome controls, such as having to use a centrally mounted computer screen to operate the windshield wipers.
FEMA reports that many Teslas and other electric vehicles have spontaneously exploded since Hurricane Ian hit Florida earlier this fall. This is due to the salt in the seawater damaging the batteries to the point where they can burst into flames.
“At least 12 EV fires were reported in Collier and Lee Counties in the subsequent weeks,” FEMA said. One of them destroyed two homes on Sanibel Island.