Metro Fire of Sacramento took to Twitter in order to catch Elon Musk’s attention following a call to put out a fire involving a Tesla Model S at a high-end vehicle dismantler. The vehicle had reportedly sat idle for months before going up in flames.
In a post, the fire crews said they were unable to move the electric car to a safe location in order to allow it to burn out because it was blocked in by the other vehicles in the yard. Indeed, the dismantler was likely in a difficult spot, because the high-end vehicles surrounding the Tesla were reportedly worth millions, and included Ferraris and Lamborghinis (also noted for their habit of catching fire).
Due to the intensity of lithium-ion fires, and their ability to burn for long periods of time, fire crews in many locations choose to move electric vehicles into a heat absorbing medium, such as a pile of sand or dirt, once the initial flames have been extinguished. There, EVs can stay buried for weeks while the fire burns itself out.
Read: Chevy Bolt EV That Missed Battery Recall Spontaneously Combusted On Mass. Driveway
In this case, crews used a fork lift to expose the underside of the electric vehicle and allowing firefighters to spray the batteries with water. Beyond being inconvenient, the method also places the firefighter in close proximity to the smoke coming off the car, which can be toxic.
It remains unclear what caused the fire to start so suddenly, but KTVU reports that the Model S was in the yard because it had been salvaged after flooding in Florida. It bears repeating that data suggests that electric vehicles actually experience fewer fire-related recalls per capita than internal combustion vehicles, though battery fires are more intense, and require new techniques to fight them effectively.
