Vehicles catching on fire is not a new phenomenon. Firefighters do say, however, that fires from electric vehicles are much harder to put out than those of cars with internal combustion engines.
What Happened: On Saturday, a Twitter user posted a video of a Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) engulfed in flames. In the video, you can hear him talking to the driver of the Tesla, who kicked through his window to escape.
“The car just shut down,” the driver said. “It just said error, error, error. Then the battery started smoking … my car just got set on fire. I kicked through the window … the power didn’t work, the door didn’t open, the windows wouldn’t go down. I had to get the F— out of this car.”
Must Watch:
Twitter User @SonsofVancouver posted the video on Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) on Saturday and a full video on YouTube.
Passed a stalled @Tesla on the way to work. Well that escalated quickly! @elonmusk how does this happen?#fire #error #electricvehicles #Elon #batteries pic.twitter.com/IK8inNB1Ft
— SOV Distillery (@SonsofVancouver) May 21, 2022
Not The First Time: A few years ago a Tesla driver crashed into the garage of a family home in San Francisco. The Tesla, a BMW and the garage all caught on fire. The firefighters were able to put out the fire of the house and BMW in about 20 minutes, but the Tesla continued to burn for three hours according to SFist, a San Francisco media outlet.
Some have even called for regulation to make sure EV batteries are safe and not causing unnatural fires. In Texas, a Tesla battery burned for nearly seven hours. The fire department chief said he was more concerned about the time spent by his crew, and not about the 20,000 gallons of water used to put out the fire.
“The time on scene is more concerning than even the amount of water,” Woodlands Township Fire Department Chief Palmer Buck told NBC News. “The fact that I might have a unit tied up for multiple hours while it cools down."
Photo: Screenshot of Tesla on fire from video on Twitter
