A Tesla vehicle caught fire in Plano, Texas, early Friday morning, leading to concerns about electric vehicle battery safety. The owner claims he just had a new battery installed by Elon Musk’s company, only to discover a hissing noise coming from it followed by flames shooting out from the battery compartment.
WFAA reports that in the early hours of Friday morning in Plano, Texas, a Tesla vehicle unexpectedly caught fire, raising fresh concerns about the safety of electric vehicle batteries. According to the car’s owner, the incident occurred shortly after midnight in the residential area of the 2700 block of Sacred Path Road. The owner reported hearing a hissing noise from the vehicle’s battery, which had been installed just the day before. Upon checking the car, they discovered flames shooting out from the battery.
“There were multiple hoses working strong [on] the car when the door was opened to extinguish the interior,” a statement from firefighters said. “Once the materials were extinguished, the hoses were all redirected to the battery.”
A video from the scene captured the severity of the situation, showing firefighters opening one of the doors of the engulfed Tesla, with flames visibly shooting out of the vehicle. Firefighters used multiple hoses to combat the fire, initially focusing on the car’s interior before redirecting their efforts to the battery itself.
Fortunately, the incident did not result in any injuries, and firefighters from the Plano Fire Department were able to quickly respond to the scene. They employed a unique technique to manage the situation, covering the vehicle with a tarp and then moving it into the street to fully extinguish the fire. This approach underscores the unique challenges that electric vehicle fires pose to emergency response teams, given the high energy density and potential volatility of lithium-ion batteries used in these vehicles.
Despite the intensity of the fire, the emergency crews managed to prevent any further property damage. Fire officials confirmed that, aside from some smoke damage, the house and a second car in the garage remained unscathed. To control the situation, firefighters had to lift the Tesla to directly cool the battery, a procedure deemed necessary to prevent the battery from overheating and potentially causing a more significant fire.
Breitbart News has reported extensively on the danger of “thermal runaway” in electric vehicle fires:
Clarkson also pointed out the difficulty in extinguishing fires in electric vehicles, citing an incident where an electric car burned for days due to a phenomenon known as “thermal runaway” in the battery pack.
“The electrical car that Richard Hammond rolled down a hill while filming for the Grand Tour burned for days. And then, after the fire had died down, something in the battery pack called ‘thermal runaway’ caused it to rear back up again. And this went on for weeks,” Clarkson explained.
The incident in Plano is not an isolated one and feeds into a broader discussion about the safety of electric vehicles, particularly concerning their batteries.
Read more at WFAA here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.