We’ve seen some pretty scary electric vehicle fires before, but a Tesla Semi blaze we haven’t witnessed, until now. One happened in the Sierra Nevada mountains of Northern California after it ran off Interstate 80 and into some trees, rupturing the batteries and triggering a raging inferno. That in turn caused authorities to shut down the interstate.
Fleeing motorcyclist catches fire in wild police chase.
The crash happened near Nyack, California at about 3 am on August 19. We don’t know why the Tesla Semi veered off the interstate. But we do know that like in other huge EV fires the smoke from the blaze is so toxic authorities weren’t letting anyone through for fear of severe health consequences for the public.
California Highway Patrol kept people back while fire officials let the Tesla burn. Firefighters were seen by KCRA’s helicopter spraying the area with water, but that was to keep the fire from spreading to the forest, not to extinguish the blaze from the truck’s batteries.
In other EV fires we’ve seen crews use tons of water, propping vehicles up to spray the undercarriage. Sometimes they even bring a dumpster full of water and submerged the car, finally extinguishing the inferno that way. But with a large semi-truck that’s perhaps not an option.
We expect there will be yet again a debate about what this incident means for the future of electric vehicles. Advocates of EVs will argue it’s a freak accident and that there are bad ICE car fires which just don’t make a big splash in the news.
Those who don’t like EVs will say this is a clear sign these alternative vehicles are dangerous and impractical. And we don’t expect people on either side to budge an inch. So what really matters is what your average person on the street thinks after seeing all this.
Image via KRCA 3/YouTube
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