January 28, 2023Updated: January 28, 2023 8:42 pm
Tesla Model S sedans are on display outside a showroom in Littleton, Colorado. A Model S caught fire on the side of a freeway in the Sacramento area, officials said.
David Zalubowski, STF/Associated Press
A Tesla suddenly burst into flames at the side of a freeway outside Sacramento Saturday afternoon, and first responders were able to put out the blaze, Sacramento Metro Fire said.
The driver of the Tesla Model S pulled up to the side of eastbound US 50 near Rancho Cordova after smoke began to rise from the front of the car. According to officials, the vehicle was undamaged before the fire.
Fire engines arrived at the scene around 3:41 p.m. and used jack stands to get to the car’s battery and douse the flames. “Thousands” of gallons of water had to be used before the fire was fully extinguished, a Sacramento Metro Fire spokesman said.
No one was injured, the fire department said.
The crews came to our first Tesla fire. It was involved in an accident 3 weeks ago and left in a junkyard. The crews put the fire down but it reignited / vented in the battery compartment. The crews dug a pit, put the car in it, and filled the pit with water pic.twitter.com/Lz5b5770lO
— Sacramento Metro Fire (@metrofirepio) June 12, 2022
This isn’t the first time the department has been working to put out a Tesla fire. last June, crews responded to a Tesla parked in a junkyard that spontaneously caught fire three weeks after it was involved in an accident, the spokesman said. Firefighters had to put the entire car in a pit and fill it with water before the fire could be extinguished.
Jordan Parker (he/him) is a contributor to the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @jparkerwrites
Jordan Parker is a breaking news reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle. Before joining the newsroom, he spent six semesters at his award-winning collegiate newspaper, the State Hornet, where he won two Associated Collegiate Press Awards and led the organization as Editor-in-Chief to an Innovation Pacemaker Award. Parker is a proud graduate of Sacramento State University, where he recently earned his bachelor’s degree in journalism in May 2022. He is originally from Pittsburg, California.