The National Transportation Safety Board revealed on Thursday that California firefighters used 50,000 gallons of water to extinguish a Tesla Semi fire last month. The electric truck crashed on Interstate 80 in Northern California and burst into flames. The resulting 1,000-degree fire shut down the highway for 16 hours and drew federal investigators to the scene.
A Tesla employee was driving the Semi from Livermore, California to the company’s facility in Sparks, Nevada, according to the Associated Press. The truck left the road on I-80 as it bends through Emigrant Pass, 70 miles from Sacramento. The semi hit a tree, slid down a slope and came to rest against a bunch of other trees. The driver walked away unharmed, but a massive lithium-ion battery burning in the middle of a wooded area in the Golden State is a recipe for disaster.
Cal Fire aircraft responded by dropping fire retardant around the burning truck to contain the fire. The aerial dousing is in addition to the 50,000 gallons of water sprayed on the blaze. Nolan Hale, a Cal Fire battalion chief, noted to KCRA that the fire gave off a toxic plume and would have necessitated evacuations if there were nearby residences.
Fire departments around the country still don’t have a standardized method of extinguishing electric vehicle fires. They will simply let the battery burn itself out and dump as much water on it as possible.
