It took 50,000 gallons of water to put out Tesla Semi fire in California, US agency says - In addition to the huge amount of water, firefighters used an aircraft to drop fire retardant on the “immediate area” of the electric truck as a precautionary measure, the agency said in a preliminary report.

FILE - A Tesla logo is shown on Feb. 27, 2024, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson, File)

California firefighters had to douse a flaming battery in a Tesla Semi with about 50,000 gallons (190,000 liters) of water to extinguish flames after a crash, the National Transportation Safety Board said Thursday.

In addition to the huge amount of water, firefighters used an aircraft to drop fire retardant on the “immediate area” of the electric truck as a precautionary measure, the agency said in a preliminary report.

Firefighters said previously that the battery reached temperatures of 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit (540 Celsius) while it was in flames.

The NTSB sent investigators to the Aug. 19 crash along Interstate 80 near Emigrant Gap, about 70 miles (113 kilometers) northeast of Sacramento. The agency said it would look into fire risks posed by the truck’s large lithium-ion battery.

The agency also found that the truck was not operating on one of Tesla’s partially automated driving systems at the time of the crash, the report said. The systems weren’t operational and “could not be engaged,” according to the agency.

The crash happened about 3:13 a.m. as the tractor-trailer was being driven by a Tesla employee from Livermore, California, to a Tesla facility in Sparks, Nevada. The Semi left the road while going around a curve to the right and hit a tree, the report said. It went down a slope and came to rest against several trees. The driver was not hurt.

After the crash, the Semi’s lithium-ion battery ignited. Firefighters used water to put out flames and keep the batteries cool. The freeway was closed for about 15 hours as firefighters made sure the batteries were cool enough to recover the truck.

Authorities took the truck to an open-air facility and monitored it for 24 hours. The battery did not reignite.

The NTSB said all aspects of the crash are under investigation as it determines the cause. The agency said it intends to issue safety recommendations to prevent similar incidents.

A message was left Thursday seeking comment from Tesla, which is based in Austin, Texas.

After an investigation that ended in 2021, the NTSB determined that high-voltage electric vehicle battery fires pose risks to first responders and that guidelines from manufacturers about how to deal with them were inadequate.

The agency, which has no enforcement powers and can only make recommendations, called for manufacturers to write vehicle-specific response guides for fighting battery fires and limiting chemical thermal runaway and reignition. The guidelines also should include information on how to safely store vehicles with damaged lithium-ion batteries, the agency said.

Tesla began delivering the electric Semis in December of 2022, more than three years after CEO Elon Musk said his company would start making the trucks. Musk has said the Semi has a range per charge of 500 miles (800 kilometers) when pulling an 82,000-pound (37,000-kilo) load.

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[Ibanez RG 350EX]

The freeway was closed for about 15 hours as firefighters made sure the batteries were cool enough to recover the truck.

Electric vehicles are so eco-friendly that they actually shut down thousands and thousands of evil polluting gas cars.

 

[I Shidded I Farded I Came]

Using water on a class b fire? Is California importing firefighters from India now?

 

[Vecr]

Using water on a class b fire? Is California importing firefighters from India now?

There's literally no other option. Lithium battery fires provide their own oxidizer, they'd burn in literal space in some conditions. The water takes heat away, it can't really directly put out the fire. Foam or co2 would be worse.

 

[HOMO FOR LIFE RETURNS]

There's literally no other option. Lithium battery fires provide their own oxidizer, they'd burn in literal space in some conditions. The water takes heat away, it can't really directly put out the fire. Foam or co2 would be worse.

lel electric is the future.

 

[The Connected Nose]

Have they not seen the tests the euros have been doing? Of course you need a fuckton of water if you're just dumping it, because it's not getting to where the heat is coming from. You puncture the battery housing, then you flood it. The currently burning cells keep burning, but the nearby cells don't get hot enough to rupture.

They've tested various tools and techniques, and it turns out you can quench an EV fire in like 15 minutes with about 50 gallons of water.

 

[Vecr]

Have they not seen the tests the euros have been doing? Of course you need a fuckton of water if you're just dumping it, because it's not getting to where the heat is coming from. You puncture the battery housing, then you flood it. The currently burning cells keep burning, but the nearby cells don't get hot enough to rupture.

They've tested various tools and techniques, and it turns out you can quench an EV fire in like 15 minutes with about 50 gallons of water.

Who's volunteering to puncture something that's currently on fire, and is going to shoot a jet of flame and toxic gasses in the direction of the puncture, i.e. directly into your face? Picking up the car and putting it into a dump truck full of water works okay, but that won't work for a semi truck.

 

[Grub]

Have they not seen the tests the euros have been doing? Of course you need a fuckton of water if you're just dumping it, because it's not getting to where the heat is coming from. You puncture the battery housing, then you flood it. The currently burning cells keep burning, but the nearby cells don't get hot enough to rupture.

They've tested various tools and techniques, and it turns out you can quench an EV fire in like 15 minutes with about 50 gallons of water.

Hmmm

Firefighters said previously that the battery reached temperatures of 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit (540 Celsius) while it was in flames.

Did they do those tests on an actively burning semi-truck down the side of an embankment in some trees? Seems like it would be hard to get close enough to do that on a large semi-truck sized battery bank, inside a burning vehicle where temperatures are 1000 degrees farenheit.

 

[augment]

Good thing water is something california has in spades huh, n... what? there's a drought? Really?
Oh, well then, this is bad.

 

[Your Starter for 10]

Who's volunteering to puncture something that's currently on fire, and is going to shoot a jet of flame and toxic gasses in the direction of the puncture, i.e. directly into your face? Picking up the car and putting it into a dump truck full of water works okay, but that won't work for a semi truck.

With a .50 cal I volunteer. Not even a big gun guy, but that would be fun as fuck.

I'd shoot at burning batteries for minimum wage.

 

[beautiful person]

There's literally no other option. Lithium battery fires provide their own oxidizer, they'd burn in literal space in some conditions. The water takes heat away, it can't really directly put out the fire. Foam or co2 would be worse.

And yet this is supposed to be better for the environment, kek. I thought water was a precious commodity. "Water is life," right?

 

[Ibanez RG 350EX]

The funniest thing about this shit is that if the incredible breakthroughs in battery capacity that EV evangelists tout ever actually come to pass, this already catastrophic problem will get worse in direct proportion to them.

 

[Drag-on Knight 91873]

With a .50 cal I volunteer. Not even a big gun guy, but that would be fun as fuck.

I'd shoot at burning batteries for minimum wage.

What about bringing in a tank? The bigger the hole, the more water can flood the battery, right?

 

[Brickleberry NationalPark]

I'm not a firefighter but some quick searching.. aren't lithium-ion battery fires meant to be extinguished with one of the following:
CO2, powder graphite, ABC dry chemical or sodium carbonate extinguishers.. or Dry chemical class B or C extinguishers.

From the article and apparently from the state they used one of the materials specifically identified to not be used on this type of fire.. water.

 

[Vecr]

I'm not a firefighter but some quick searching.. aren't lithium-ion battery fires meant to be extinguished with one of the following:
CO2, powder graphite, ABC dry chemical or sodium carbonate extinguishers.. or Dry chemical class B or C extinguishers.

From the article and apparently from the state they used one of the materials specifically identified to not be used on this type of fire.. water.

The fire's too big to directly put out as in stop the chemical reaction. A lithium ion battery fire isn't a normal fire that needs air to burn, it's more like a runaway chemical reaction that just happens to also be on fire. You use huge quantities of water to cool down the chemistry and stabilize it for transport. "Putting out the fire" isn't really the goal, the car/truck is done, the point is to make it safe for disposal.

 

[Brickleberry NationalPark]

The fire's too big to directly put out as in stop the chemical reaction. A lithium ion battery fire isn't a normal fire that needs air to burn, it's more like a runaway chemical reaction that just happens to also be on fire. You use huge quantities of water to cool down the chemistry and stabilize it for transport. "Putting out the fire" isn't really the goal, the car/truck is done, the point is to make it safe for disposal.

Thanks for clarifying. I've casually read the goal they use is to lower the temp to sub-ignition temperature..
Largest battery fire I am ever concerned with in my personal capacity would be far smaller so it tends to burn out fast enough I wouldn't have time to put it out anyways.

 

[Your Starter for 10]

What about bringing in a tank? The bigger the hole, the more water can flood the battery, right?

It's California, so it'd have to be an electric tank. At which point you might as well bring in the Space Wolves in a Leman Russ Mark IV.

 

[Tablet County]

This reminds me of a little ditty I once heard...

We see that you liked: Being in a lithium fire.

 

[ZazietheBeast]

The other thing that worries me about this EV battery bullshit is that it really doesn't take much to turn it into a nasty improvised weapon. An ICE machine at worst will simply detonate and you can put it out with enough water. EV in the other hand is an arsonist' wet dream.

 

[Comandante Marcos]

It is sheer luck and/or the will of Allah that this fucker didn't start a ginormous wildfire. Dense forest full of fuels meets a fucking huge lithium battery having a thermal runaway and a 100 mile long wildfire wiping out shitloads of the northcentral Sierra Nevada does NOT result in a state that has been in a drought for a quarter century? Wow. The next Tesla Semi that blows up along Interstate 80 in the mountains may not have such a good result, especially if it hasn't rained/snowed much in a few years.