BCoFD : Fire Crews Extinguish Stubborn Tesla Vehicle Fire

Press release from the Baltimore County Fire Department:

October 01, 2021

Fire and hazmat crews Thursday evening extinguished a stubborn vehicle fire involving a battery-powered Tesla.

Towson area fire crews responded at 7:50 p.m. to the intersection of Charles Street and Towsontown Boulevard for a motor vehicle crash involving leaking fluids. First-arriving crews found a single-vehicle crash involving a Tesla, with a small fire under the vehicle. The driver self-evacuated and was not injured.

The fire escalated to fully-involved within about five minutes. Firefighters initially used portable extinguishers, but a foam unit from BCoFD’s hazmat unit was deployed, along with copious amounts of water, to cool the fire as it intensified due to damaged battery-powered cells. These batteries contain lithium; lithium ignites when exposed to oxygen.

Crews from the Towson, Brooklandville and Hillendale stations, as well as from Chestnut Ridge VFC, were on scene for about two hours.

This press release was produced by the Baltimore County Fire Department. The views expressed here are the author’s own.