While she was in a car junkyard, three weeks after a violent collision, a white Tesla Model S suddenly caught fire. And the firefighters had a hard time extinguishing the devouring flames.
Last summer, a Tesla Model S Plaid caught fire while its driver was behind the wheel. Fortunately, he was able to escape unscathed. Most recently, a white Model S made headlines across the Atlantic. After being badly damaged in a crash three weeks earlier, the car was sent to a scrapyard in Rancho Cordova, California. It then suddenly caught fire.
Once on the scene, the firefighters had great difficulty in bringing the fire under control. In question, the residual heat of the battery which invariably gave rise to new flames. So much so that the firefighters, helped by the workers from the demolition site, had to think outside the box. The firefighters dug a hole and pushed the car into it. They then flooded the pit with water, which ultimately put an end to the fire, as the battery was completely submerged.
To read > Connected, a Tesla catches fire and burns down a house before exploding
Tesla: a delayed fire
In the end, firefighters spent more than an hour battling the flames, using 4,500 gallons of water (more than 17,000 liters). It now remains to be seen why the electric car suddenly caught fire three weeks after the accident. A question that Sacramento firefighters have not yet been able to answer, said spokesman Parker Wilbourn, quoted by the Washington Post.
Electric vehicle fires take up more resources and time than thermal car fires. Without the immersion maneuver, an electric car fire may require twice as much water and up to 24 hours to extinguish. And for good reason, lithium-ion batteries continue to burn until their energy is entirely consumed, specifies autoevolution.
Last September, two Teslas caught fire in repair centers. The firefighters then had to place a pipe under the battery to cool it, using a huge amount of water.