"It takes either some sort of dry chemical or very huge amount of water."
Blazed Up
A Tesla Semi truck caught fire while driving on a California interstate on Monday, blocking both directions of traffic.
The truck then started spewing toxic fumes into the air from its considerable battery pack, CBS News reports, prompting a hazmat response.
It took first responders many hours to put out the big rig fire, highlighting just how challenging it is to extinguish a lithium-ion battery blaze — especially at the scale required to haul freight.
Footage shows responders dousing the wreck with copious amounts of water in an effort to stop it from reigniting. An aircraft even airdropped fire retardant material on the truck, as if it was a wildfire.
"The battery itself, you can't just spray water on it to put it out," California Highway Patrol official Jason Lyman told CBS. "It takes either some sort of dry chemical or very huge amount of water, I've heard as much as 40,000 gallons."
Westbound Interstate 80 reopened more than 13 hours after a Tesla Semi caught fire east of Nyack early Monday, the Cal Fire said. Eastbound I-80 remains closed.
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Production Hell
It's still unclear what caused the fire. As Electrek reports, authorities will likely investigate the incident. Tesla uses most of the few dozen of its Semi trucks that are currently on the road for its own testing.
The Elon Musk-run company also uses the truck to haul new EV batteries from its Gigafactory in Nevada to its manufacturing plant in Fremont, California, but as The Verge points out, the truck was likely driving without pulling a trailer, suggesting its own battery pack was aflame.
It's far from the first EV fire authorities have struggled to put out. Last year, a Tesla Model S "spontaneously" burst into flames while cruising down a California highway, according to the Sacramento Metro Fire District.
Three fire engines had to pour a combined 6,000 gallons of water on the wreck, almost ten times as much as what's needed to extinguish a gas car fire.
Despite first revealing the Semi well over six years ago, Tesla has only built very few of its all-electric Class 8 trucks so far — the company hasn't released any official numbers — and has fallen far behind orders. In 2023, Musk admitted that "there just weren't enough batteries" to reach "volume production."
Tesla is building out a new factory near its Gigafactory in Nevada, which will be focused on producing new Tesla Semi trucks.
The company will have to act quickly, though, because its competition is growing considerably in the US.
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