Tesla Vehicle Catches on Fire at Supercharger Station

According to an online report at electrek.co, a Tesla Model S caught fire and became completely engulfed in flames when plugged into a supercharge station in Antwerp, Belgium.*

Per the local news, the vehicle caught on fire soon after it began to charge.  According to the report, “[t]he driver of the car had parked it at a so-called ‘Supercharger’, a fast charging station, at the Novotel at Luithagen-Haven. When he returned a little later, his Tesla and the supercharger were lit up. Possibly there was a technical problem before charging.”

The fire department was required to use a different technique to put out the flames to ensure that it did not ignite once again, which has been a problem associated with electric vehicle fires. What the Antwerp Fire Department did was to submerge the vehicle into a pool of water to put out the fire.  “Moments later, the fire was extinguished by the fire department by immersing the car in a container with water. To ensure that the fire does not flare up again, the Tesla, or what remains of it, remained in the water for the rest of the night.”

Fires a Tesla supercharger stations have been rare, however, it is not the first incident of its kind.  Back in 2016, a Tesla Model S became engulfed in flames and completely burned while at a supercharger station located in Norway.

At such time, the manufacturer of the vehicle indicated that the fire was caused by a short circuit in the vehicle and while it is unknown why this occurred, they nevertheless instituted a software update to its entire fleet to “provide extra security during charging.”

Notwithstanding the above, there are many gas powered car fires that occur across the world while there are only a handful of fires associated with electric vehicles.  

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Source:https://electrek.co/2019/06/01/tesla-fire-supercharger/