California Firefighters Use 6,000 Gallons of Water to Put Out Tesla Fire on Highway 50

On Saturday afternoon, a Tesla Model S burst into flames in a>=”https://www.theepochtimes.com/t-california”>California Officials said that two lanes on Highway 50 were closed due to the driver’s negligence.

The electric car was travelling at “freeway speeds” When it is empty “spontaneously” The Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District declared that the fire had been set. Follow us on Twitter. The incident occurred at 3:41 p.m.

Firefighters used approximately 6,000 gallons to extinguish the fire as the batteries ran out. “continued to combust,” Officials from the fire department confirmed this. To extinguish the flames, they used car jacks.

Photos taken at the scene show severe damage to the car’s front.

According to the fire department, there were no injuries.

The Biden administration is promoting the production and sale electric vehicles as a key component of his climate change and energy agenda. Electric vehicle battery fires have been receiving increasing national attention. President Joe Biden has made clear that electric vehicles are more cost-effective and environmentally friendly than traditional gasoline-powered vehicles and has pledged to make half of all vehicles sold in the country electric or plug-in hybrids before 2030.

While it’s long been known that all lithium-ion batteries, including those used in cell phones, have the potential to explode or burn, lithium-ion battery fires in electric cars are significantly harder to put out.

A Tesla Model S autopilot collided in Houston with a tree, killing two elderly passengers. This set off a massive fire. Fire officials said that the battery continued to burn despite being extinguished with more than 30,000 gallons water and four hours of work. Tesla was called by firefighters to inquire how they could put out the fire.

Another accident in which a Tesla Model X caught fire at a Texas gas station in Austin in August 2021 saw firefighters using 40 times more water than usual to put out the flames.

“Normally a car fire you can put out with 500 to 1,000 gallons of water,” According to Chief ThayerSmith, Austin Fire Department Division The Independent. “But Tesla’s may take up to 30,000-40,000 gallons of water, maybe even more, to extinguish the battery pack once it starts burning and that was the case here.”

Tesla claims its EVs are safe and reliable. “safest cars in the world” On the Safety section of its website. According to the U.S. Federal Highway Administration data, gas-powered cars are 11 times more likely than their own cars to catch on fire.

The company uses a particular metric called “miles driven per vehicle fire,” It was estimated that there was about one Tesla vehicle fire per 210 million mile traveled between 2012 and 2021. Federal data shows that there are approximately one vehicle fire per 19 million miles.

Tesla didn’t respond to a request for comment.