Six Cadillac EVs Destroyed In A Massive 18-Hour Dealership Blaze
A blaze in Fort Worth, Texas, earlier this week destroyed six all-electric SUVs, all of which appear to be the $127,000+ Cadillac Escalade IQ. The blaze, which broke out at Frank Kent Cadillac, took almost 18 hours to control, and it highlights how difficult is to contain and extinguish an EV fire. Stellantis recently filed a patent showing a way to quickly separate a damaged battery from the vehicle.
Jaw-dropping images captured at the scene show several of the Cadillac EVs involved in the fire. The Fort Worth Fire Department hasn't said how the inferno started, but it described how challenging it was to control and eventually extinguish the fire. Although an incident like this may make you worry about owning an EV, remember that EV fires occur far less often than those involving combustion-powered cars.
The local fire department notes that EV fires can burn much hotter than the average fire and that extinguishing them can be exceptionally difficult, in part because of how well sealed the battery packs are. The fire started during the day and continued into the evening.
No one was injured by the fire
In addition to fire crews using a lot of water to get the fire under control, they also placed special blankets over the vehicles to limit the flames as they moved nearby cars away from the scene. The whole saga lasted 17 hours and 33 minutes. In addition to destroying six EVs, the fire damaged two other vehicles. Obviously, things could have been much worse had the fire spread to the dozens of other cars parked in the lot or the dealership building.
Frank Kent Cadillac thanked local firefighters on Facebook for their efforts, praising them for preventing the inferno from spreading. "We owe an enormous thank you to our first responders, whose quick response and decisive action brought the fire under control before it could spread to neighboring businesses or the surrounding grassland," it wrote. "Their professionalism, courage, and swift action made all the difference, and we cannot thank them enough."