Tesla reduced to ashes after catching fire on Pennsylvania highway
(Courtesy: Morris Township Volunteer Fire Company #1)
MORRIS TOWNSHIP, Penn. - Firefighters are accustomed to responding to car fires, but electric vehicles have proven to be problematic for fire crews.
That was the case Tuesday morning in Clearfield County, Pennsylvania, when firefighters responded to a vehicle fire on Interstate 80.
Morris Township firefighters were called to assist crews from two other nearby fire stations due to the size of the fire, coming from a Tesla that was fully engulfed in flames.
RELATED: Jury finds Tesla just 1% to blame for fiery crash that killed 2 Florida teens
"This was not your typical vehicle fire as crews quickly utilized just over 4,000 gallons of water," firefighters wrote in their Facebook post. "In total, approximately 12,000 gallons of water was utilized."
(Courtesy: Morris Township Volunteer Fire Company #1)
They explained that crews normally can extinguish a fully involved vehicle fire with approximately 500 gallons of water.
However, due to the Tesla's lithium-ion battery, putting out the fire would require several additional tankers since the vehicle "would continue to reignite and burn fierce at times," they said.
RELATED: California crews use 4,500 gallons of water to put out Tesla fire
In all, authorities said it took crews nearly two hours of continually applying water on the vehicle since the battery would begin to reignite and would hold high temperatures.
Photos from the scene showed the charred remnants of the car, where much of the frame was gone by the time the fire was finally extinguished. The car's rims can be seen with little rubber from the tires remaining.
(Courtesy: Morris Township Volunteer Fire Company #1)
"This vehicle burnt so hot and long that if it was not for the rims you might not even [have known] it was a vehicle," they wrote.
RELATED: Electric vehicles are exploding from water damage after Hurricane Ian, Florida official warns
In Florida, the state's fire marshal warned that firefighters have battled a number of fires caused by electric vehicle batteries that became waterlogged by flooding from Hurricane Ian, which hit southwest Florida at the end of September.
EV batteries that were waterlogged in the wake of the hurricane then became at risk of corrosion, which could lead to unexpected fires, according to Jimmy Patronis, the state's top financial officer and fire marshal.
"There’s a ton of EVs disabled from Ian. As those batteries corrode, fires start," Patronis tweeted in October. "That’s a new challenge that our firefighters haven’t faced before. At least on this kind of scale."
"It takes special training and understanding of EVs to ensure these fires are put out quickly and safely," he continued in a follow-up tweet.
Patronis published a video of firefighters in Naples, Florida, battling a fire started from a Tesla EV's battery. A bystander is overheard in the video saying that the crew had used hundreds of gallons of water attempting to put the fire out.