Firefighters Use 50,000 Gallons to Battle Electric Vehicle Fire

A Tesla Semi’s fiery crash on California’s Interstate 80 turned into a high-stakes firefight, as emergency responders struggled to douse flames ignited by the vehicle’s lithium-ion battery pack.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) reported that CAL FIRE had to use a jaw-dropping 50,000 gallons of water, alongside fire-retardant airdrops, to put out the blaze. The crash and subsequent fire shut down eastbound lanes of I-80 for a staggering 15 hours, as reported by Breitbart.

The Tesla electric big rig, driven by a Tesla employee, veered off the road on August 19, smashing into a traffic post and a tree before careening down a slope and igniting a post-crash inferno. Fortunately, no one was injured. However, the NTSB’s report sheds light on the difficulty of extinguishing fires in electric vehicles. Tesla’s infamous “thermal runaway” effect—the tendency of lithium-ion batteries to reignite hours after being “put out”—was a constant concern, but the semi’s battery system stayed under control this time.

Tesla, in an attempt to manage the hazards, sent a technical expert to the crash site. Air quality checks were performed, and a thermal scanner monitored the battery’s temperature to ensure there was no secondary ignition. The truck was eventually towed to an open-air location where it was observed for another 24 hours. This cautious approach prevented any further incidents.

The blaze and the hazardous materials response that followed created chaos along I-80, a key artery linking Northern California with Nevada. Traffic was rerouted, and the full shutdown stretched late into the evening, causing significant delays.