Tesla goes up in flames after single-car crash in Wakefield

Neighborhood

It took crews two-and-a-half hrs and 20,000 gallons of h2o to extinguish the electric powered automobile hearth.

It took firefighters more than two several hours and over 20,000 gallons of drinking water to put out a Tesla hearth pursuing a solitary-vehicle crash on Interstate 95 in Wakefield Thursday night.

Wakefield fireplace officials and state police responded to the crash on the northbound lane close to Exit 59 at 10:47 p.m., in accordance to a press release from the Wakefield Hearth Department.

1st responders noticed a Tesla electrical car wedged from a guardrail in the right breakdown lane. As crews attempted to very clear the auto from the roadway, the guardrail pierced its undercarriage, leading to the lithium-ion batteries to go into a thermal runaway, according to the assertion. Hearth officials mentioned the car or truck then grew to become “fully concerned in fireplace.”

The car’s 38-12 months-aged driver, who was not in the car at the time of the fireplace, declined healthcare focus, in accordance to officers.

To extinguish the blaze, firefighters used two-and-a-50 percent several hours spraying “copious amounts of h2o on to the auto,” eventually totaling far more than 20,000 gallons, according to the statement.

Multiple encompassing mutual aid communities also responded to support firefighting operations and produce a drinking water shuttle to continuously have h2o to the scene. Engines from Melrose, Stoneham, Looking through, Lynnfield as nicely as a Middleton water tanker, assisted in the operation.

Firefighters utilised a few hoses and a “blitz gun” to great the Tesla’s battery compartment, according to officers.

The automobile was cleared from the roadway with authorization from a Section of Hearth Expert services Hazmat Group and the Section of Environmental Defense, according to the statement.

Officers said the hearth brought on targeted traffic delays as condition law enforcement directed automobiles to a single lane amid a wintertime storm.

“As sales of electric powered and hybrid autos raise, the fire assistance is continuing to modify our ways to correctly answer, secure assets and firefighters as properly as regulate these kinds of fires,” reported Provisional Fire Main Tom Purcell, noting the supplemental problems of preventing fires in electrical automobiles.

Purcell reported that controlling EV fires typically usually takes extended and demands a large and steady water offer. Crews must also maintain heightened situational consciousness and prepare for secondary fires. 

“The crews did a great work, specially in the center of storm disorders — on a occupied freeway. All responding mutual aid businesses from the bordering communities that assisted were amazing and greatly served the Wakefield Hearth Office in controlling the incident,” Purcell stated.