Semi-truck up in flames

Firefighters in the US had to use 190,000 litres of water to extinguish a blaze involving an electric Tesla semi-truck following a collision.

Besides water to cool its batteries, an aircraft was used to apply “fire retardant to the immediate area as a precautionary measure”, says the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) in a statement released on September 13.

The crash involving the Tesla semi took place early on August 19 as the vehicle was being driven near Emigrant Gap in California.

The semi-truck was being operated by an employee of the company who was heading from Livermore, California, to a Tesla facility in Sparks, Nevada.

It veered off the road while going around a curve and struck a tree before going down a slope to rest against several trees, the report adds. The driver was uninjured.

However, “the vehicle’s lithium-ion electric battery system ignited after the roadway departure, resulting in a post-crash fire”, it states.

It took nearly 190,000l to extinguish the flames and cool the batteries, the agency says. Firefighters also mobilised an aircraft to drop retardant around the crash site.

The road was closed for about 15 hours so firefighters could ensure the batteries were “at a safe temperature for vehicle recovery operations”, notes the NTSB. This was also to prevent the blaze spreading to surrounding forested areas.

When Tesla announced its second-quarter results recently, chief executive Elon Musk indicated that large-scale production of semis was still planned to start by the end of 2025.

The first such vehicles have been delivered to a few selected customers, such as PepsiCo, since 2022.