As you may have heard, a Tesla Motors Model S vehicle caught on fire in Seattle on Thursday after striking metallic debris on the freeway: Elon Musk defends Tesla electric car after fire – USA Today [incl. video report].
A video of the fire (see below) caused quite stir, as stockholders and analysts imagined Tesla might be entering a Boeing 787 battery fire-like crisis. The rave reviews and high rankings of the Model S have sent the stock price soaring in the past few months and this is the first significant negative news that the company has encountered recently.
However, in a response from Elon Musk, he explains that the puncture led to a fire in a small section of the battery pack and it was isolated as planned by the firewall design. Similar damage to a gasoline car could have created a much bigger conflagration : Model S Fire – Tesla Motors Blog
I wonder if the firefighter knew not to pour water on it, or if he was just lucky? I assume firefighters are well-trained on the periodic table’s trickier columns, but I wonder if they are well-trained at identifying electric cars?
I think most professional firefighters/emergency crews now get training for electric cars. There are quite a few on the road after all, especially if you include hybrids. I expect, however, there are variations among the models regarding how the fires are to be dealt with. E.g. Elon said the following:
“When the fire department arrived, they observed standard procedure, which was to gain access to the source of the fire by puncturing holes in the top of the battery’s protective metal plate and applying water. For the Model S lithium-ion battery, it was correct to apply water (vs. dry chemical extinguisher), but not to puncture the metal firewall, as the newly created holes allowed the flames to then vent upwards into the front trunk section of the Model S. Nonetheless, a combination of water followed by dry chemical extinguisher quickly brought the fire to an end.”
It is much better than other luxury brands with gasoline engine. The range is amazing and we are waiting for the low-cost model also…