Tesla Semi Crash Required 50000 Gallons of Water, Fire-Fighting Aircraft to Put Out Blaze
The California Highway Patrol said the fire's temperatures reached 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
By Will Sabel CourtneyPublished: Sep 13, 2024 11:00 AM EDT
A Tesla Semi crash in California last month required firefighters to dump 50,000 gallons of water on the burning wreckage of the electric tractor-trailer in order to extinguish the fire, the National Transportation Safety Board announced on Thursday — and authorities were even forced to call in air support to waterbomb the vicinity to keep the fire from spreading.
The NTSB's preliminary report states that the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection used an aircraft to drop flame retardant on the "immediate area" of the burning electric truck, in order to prevent the fire from spreading to the nearby forest. The California Highway Patrol said the inferno's temperatures climbed as high as 1,000º Fahrenheit, according to the Associated Press.
The Semi was being driven by a Tesla employee, and was en route to a company facility in Sparks, Nevada — home of Tesla's massive Gigafactory battery manufacturing facility — when the crash occurred, according to the report. The NTSB says the vehicle's Advanced Driver Assistance Systems, or ADAS, were not operational at the time of the incident.
https://www.roadandtrack.com/news/a62188058/tesla-semi-crash-fire-required-50000-gallons-of-water-and-fire-fighting-aircraft/
