California firefighters had to douse a flaming battery in a Tesla Semi with about 50,000 gallons (190,000 liters) of water to extinguish flames after a crash, the National Transportation Safety Board said Thursday.
In addition to the huge amount of water, firefighters used an aircraft to drop fire retardant on the “immediate area” of the electric truck as a precautionary measure, the agency said in a preliminary report.
Firefighters said previously that the battery reached temperatures of 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit (540 Celsius) while it was in flames.
The NTSB sent investigators to the Aug. 19 crash along Interstate 80 near Emigrant Gap, about 70 miles (113 kilometers) northeast of Sacramento. The agency said it would look into fire risks posed by the truck’s large lithium-ion battery.
Sorry but that link is just general guidance (it mentions sprinkler systems) and doesn’t apply to outdoor environments, where groundwater contamination is an issue, and especially highways, where any extinguishing infrastructure must be mobile and quick cleanup is a major priority, very well.
If 50,000 gallons of water is the best and most effective and safest option to douse a battery fire, and that’s what firefighters did, then why is anyone complaining about it?
Cause it just sounds like a lot.