Sacramento fire officials said that it took 6,000 gallons to put out a fire caused by Tesla car batteries that had “spontaneously” burst into flames.
The official Twitter account for the Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District issued a series of tweets documenting the incident near Rancho Cordova in California on Saturday.
“Crews arrived to a Tesla Model S engulfed in flames, nothing unusual prior. 2 Fire Engines, a water tender, and a ladder truck were requested to assist,” the department tweeted”
“Crews used jacks to access the underside to extinguish and cool the battery. Thousands of gallons were used in extinguishment,” they added.
They went on to say that the battery cells continued to combust as firefighters attempted to put out the fire.
“Thankfully no injuries were reported,” they said.
When they were challenged as to whether they always report information about all car fires or only for Teslas, the department responded.
The vehicle battery compartment spontaneously caught fire while it was traveling freeway speeds on EB Hwy 50. The fire was extinguished with approx 6,000 gallons of water, as the battery cells continued to combust. Thankfully no injuries were reported. pic.twitter.com/PRmlWzQdXS
— Metro Fire of Sacramento (@metrofirepio) January 29, 2023Advertisement
“Great question! We report anything that would be of interest to the public. EV and lithium power is still fairly new technology, and proving much more challenging to extinguish,” they tweeted.
“For reference- 6,000 gallons of water is far more than we generally use on a house fire,” they added.
In August, California regulators issued an order commanding that all cars, trucks, and SUVs bought or sold after 2035 be required to run on electricity.
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