50,000 gallons of water needed to fight Tesla Semi fire in Northern California, NTSB says

Washington — Firefighters in California had to use a burning battery to extinguish a fire after a Tesla Semi crashed with nearly 50,000 gallons of water, the National Transportation Safety Board said Thursday.

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

Firefighters previously said the battery reached temperatures of 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit during the fire.

The NTSB sent investigators to the Aug. 19 crash along Interstate 80 near Emigrant Gap, about 70 miles northeast of Sacramento. The company said it would look into the fire risk posed by the truck's large lithium-ion batteries.

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

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The accident occurred at about 3:13 a.m. when the tractor-trailer was driven by a Tesla employee from Livermore, California, at a Tesla facility in Sparks, Nevada. According to reports, the semi left the road, made a right turn and hit a tree. It came down a slope and rested against several trees. The driver was not injured.

After the crash, the semi's lithium-ion battery caught fire. Firefighters used water to extinguish the fire 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 moved the truck to an open area and monitored it for 24 hours. The battery didn't turn on again.

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, based in Austin, Texas.

After an investigation that ended in 2021, the NTSB determined that high-voltage electric vehicle battery fires pose a risk to first responders and that manufacturers' guidance on how to deal with them is inadequate.

The agency, which has no enforcement powers and can only make recommendations, asked manufacturers to write vehicle-specific response guidelines to combat battery fires and limit chemical thermal fugitives and emissions. The guidelines should include information on how to safely store vehicles with damaged lithium-ion batteries, the agency said.

Tesla began delivering electric semis in December 2022, more than three years after CEO Elon Musk said his company began building the trucks. Musk says the range is 500 miles per cm of charge while towing an 82,000-pound load.