Tesla driver critical after crash triggers ‘thermal runaway’ battery fire that burned for hours on NSW highway
A Tesla driver is fighting for life after a crash triggered a dangerous battery fire that took Aussie firefighters hours to extinguish.
A Tesla driver suffered serious burns following an crash that triggered a “thermal runaway” battery fire on Friday.
Emergency services shut down the Pacific Highway near Rainbow Flat at about 2.30pm on Friday afternoon after a Tesla Model Y crashed south of Taree.
An Ambulance Service of NSW spokeswoman confirmed that paramedics treated a man in his 40s for burns to his face, hands and arms before taking him to Manning Base Hospital at Taree.
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Police said the main remains in a critical condition.
A Fire and Rescue NSW spokesman confirmed that the Tesla’s battery went into “thermal runaway” following the incident and had to be “cooled for hours”.
He said electric vehicle fires were exceedingly rare and usually only occurred after a crash.
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“We aren’t seeing a problem with EV car fires unless they’ve had mechanical damage such as an accident,” he said.
Firefighters from the Diamond Beach Rural Fire Service brigade posted on Facebook that, “as a result of being damaged in an accident, the battery pack of a Tesla went into what is known as ‘thermal runaway’ – the burning battery cells continuing to fuel the fire”.
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Thermal runaway fires for electric vehicles are particularly hazardous as they are difficult to extinguish and can continue for hours.
In some cases, battery fires can re-ignite days or weeks after a fire has been doused.
The threat posed re-ignition can be so dire that EV companies in China have experimented with explosively ejecting batteries from damaged electric vehicles.
RFS called for other brigades to ferry water to the scene.
Recognising the threat posed by a runaway fire, the local RFS brigade said its crews trained for thermal runaway fires five years ago.
“The firefighters knew to operate from a distance and upwind of the burning vehicle,” it said.
“Joined by Fire and Rescue, the brigades eventually used more than 20,000 litres of water to extinguish the fire and cool the wreck for it to be safely loaded on a tilt-tray truck.
“The vehicle was then placed in a safe area at Rainbow Flat RFS station in case of re-ignition.”
The crews took special precautions to launder uniforms to remove the risk of toxic chemicals generated by a lithium ion battery fire.
Originally published as Tesla driver critical after crash triggers ‘thermal runaway’ battery fire that burned for hours on NSW highway
