Motoring Discussion > Tesla - Tesla S Crashes and Catches Fire Miscellaneous
Thread Author: rtj70 Replies: 8

 Tesla - Tesla S Crashes and Catches Fire - rtj70
... and the fire department stay back due to the danger of electrocution.

I wonder what was burning? Batteries I guess.

www.theregister.co.uk/2016/09/07/tesla_model_s_crash_electrical_hazard_fire_brigade_netherlands/
 Tesla - Tesla S Crashes and Catches Fire - smokie
The scare stories about firefighters not going near burning properties which have solar panels for fear of electricity have been doing the rounds for a while, and are apparently just scare stories with no basis in fact, maybe that wasn't the case in the early days though.

There are standards which a solar installation has to follow, which I'm sure the firefighters would know of and understand, and they know to look for isolators etc.

They are, after all, tackling incidents in a wide range of environments, all of which are dangerous, and I expect they carry out a risk assessment to determine what precautions are required. I suppose in extreme, their risk mitigation would be "do nothing", which may have happened here if they had insufficient knowledge. However there is electricity in many fire locations after all, as well as many other potential hazards like smoke, chemicals etc.

I'm sure that Tesla's autopilot will be under close scrutiny.
 Tesla - Tesla S Crashes and Catches Fire - Stuartli
Oh dear. Someone I know has ordered a Tesla S.....:-(
 Tesla - Tesla S Crashes and Catches Fire - The Melting Snowman
>>I'm sure that Tesla's autopilot will be under close scrutiny.

That would explain why it crashed (if it's proven to be at fault) but not why it caught fire.
 Tesla - Tesla S Crashes and Catches Fire - rtj70
If you Google Tesla Model S fires there's been quite a few. They reinforced underneath to stop batteries getting damaged and catching fire in 2014.

So if you have an older Model S with a 60KWh battery... is that safer than the latest 100KWh variant? There's a lot of batteries in these. Anyone seen what the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 did recently. Imagine that on a much bigger scale!

And then with many hundreds of volts flowing.... (375V?) then the fire brigade rightly are cautious.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Cd2WIxKRDk
 Tesla - Tesla S Crashes and Catches Fire - The Melting Snowman
Autopilot not guilty:

news.sky.com/story/autopilot-not-to-blame-for-fatal-netherlands-crash-tesla-10569554
 Tesla - Tesla S Crashes and Catches Fire - spamcan61
>>
>> So if you have an older Model S with a 60KWh battery... is that safer
>> than the latest 100KWh variant? There's a lot of batteries in these. Anyone seen what
>> the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 did recently. Imagine that on a much bigger scale!
>>
Lithium based batteries are always a pain (ask Boeing, Samsung etc.) - their construction makes them very sensitive to mechanical shock, particularly if there's any slight manufacturing defects; and the resulting fires are self sustaining.
 Tesla - Tesla S Crashes and Catches Fire - Lygonos
They are prone to fires but not explosions - there is no metallic lithium in the cells.

My understanding is that if a Tesla battery pack was punctured and ignited, you would have time to take off your seatbelt and get out of the car, hang about for a minute and then go back and recover your briefcase while waiting for the Fire brigade.

When petrol tanks go up there is a tad less time available.
Last edited by: Lygonos on Fri 9 Sep 16 at 13:53
 Tesla - Tesla S Crashes and Catches Fire - zippy
Friend has a box of lithium batteries the size of two large suitcases under his stairs to take power from his solar panels on the roof.

I would not be comfortable with them being place under my escape route from the house!

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