A Tesla that spontaneously caught fire and nearly burned down in its owner’s garage way back in February this year, burned down again after it was moved to another location.
The original fire took place on February 8. Firefighters were called to the home of a resident in Fox Chapel, Pittsburgh, after a 2018 Tesla Model X burst into flames in the garage. The house wasn’t damaged in the fire, but the Tesla and another car received considerable damage, CBS Pittsburgh reports.
The owner managed to get his dogs out of the garage before first responders arrived, without being injured. The report doesn’t say whether he’d had issues with the Tesla before the fire.
Earlier this week, forensic engineers had the Tesla moved to another location so they could perform a more thorough investigation on it and determine what caused the original fire. That’s when it caught fire again, in the garage.
“We removed the car from the garage. A Tesla engineer removed the fuse from the battery pack prior to transport, indicating that would make the car safe for transport,” David Bizzak, a forensic engineer involved in the investigation, tells the media outlet.
“We brought it here to Monroeville, arrived around 3:30 in the afternoon, and about 6:20, the car spontaneously caught fire,” Bizzak adds.
The Tesla burned for several hours and was nothing but a steaming pile of metal when firefighters were finally able to put the fire out. CBS Pittsburgh notes that “electric car batteries are unstable,” citing forensic engineers.
On previous similar occasions, Tesla defended itself from such allegations by saying there are no stats to prove that EVs burst into flames more easily than traditional cars upon impact. However, Tesla does seem to have issues with battery packs that explode when there is no impact to set them off, as is the case here.
Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends. Full profile
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