Tesla car burned to the ground at a gas station in the US - why such fires are hard to put out

The fire department of the state of Pennsylvania, USA, on Monday extinguished a Tesla car that caught fire at the Supercharger charging station in the Mechanicsburg area. The car burned down completely, leaving only the frame. After extinguishing the open flame, firefighters had to cool the electric car battery with additional water and asked the local hazard protection department for help with monitoring the spill/drainage. Fortunately, there were no injuries in the incident. The cause of the fire is unknown, but this case highlights the particular danger associated with fires involving electric vehicles. Although such fires occur infrequently compared to internal combustion engine vehicles, they conceal a hidden danger: the battery of an electric vehicle may reignite even several days after the initial fire. " It goes into a thermal mode - the battery just keeps generating its own heat. It takes a lot of time to cool it down. We're talking about seven hours of watering from a hose," says Fire Captain Peter Rocco. Such fires require firefighters to remain at the scene for several hours, as they have to pour numerous liters of water on the battery. In addition, the smoke from an electric car is also quite dangerous. If an electric car catches fire, unfortunately, a regular fire extinguisher will not work. It is better to quickly exit the vehicle and call the fire department. Source: The Byte (Translated and paraphrased from Russian)