Can you imagine if this were sitting in a garage?
It’s an exciting time to be a fire fighter as more people start driving electric cars. That was clearly illustrated recently when a Sacramento fire crew responded to its very first Tesla vehicle fire. The twist is the Tesla wasn’t at the scene of the crash because that happened three weeks before. Instead, the electric vehicle spontaneously combusted while just sitting at the junk yard.
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According to Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District, the Tesla was heavily damaged in the original crash. We’re guessing at least some of the battery cells in the chassis were ruptured, which raises the risk of fire at any time significantly. As you can see from the videos, even though there’s no gas tank in the car, the Tesla burned to a crisp, negating arguments from EV fanboys that your carrying combustible liquid in your vehicle makes you stupid compared to them.
As we’ve seen with other EV fires, the crew kept knocking down the blaze only for it to reignite. They finally had to flip the car onto its side to access the battery cells on the underside. But even with direct access to the origin of the fire, the Tesla just kept reigniting.
Finally, the crew and workers at the junkyard dug a pit, put the Tesla inside it, then filled that pit with water to completely submerge the batteries. Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District estimates it took 4,500 gallons of water to extinguish the flames, but it would’ve been much more had they not dug the pit.
Digging the pit came with another huge benefit: it contained most of the contaminated water instead of letting it run off. That’s something a lot of people don’t think about when they talk about the environmental impact of EVs, because in accidents the batteries can be punctured and the result isn’t good. But you’re stupid if you drive an ICE car because it’s a “dinosaur.”
