One federal safety agency has dispatched an investigator and another says it is gathering information on a Tesla battery fire in Southern California.
The National Transportation Safety Board said Monday it is sending a technical specialist to watch Tesla’s examination of the Model S that caught fire Friday on a street in West Hollywood. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said in a statement that it “continues to collect information regarding this incident and will take appropriate action as warranted.”
Actor Mary McCormack shared video of her husband’s Tesla car shooting flames near the front wheels. She says in a tweet that there was no accident and the incident was “out of the blue.” McCormack is married to director Michael Morris.
“This is what happened to my husband and his car today,” she wrote Friday. “No accident, out of the blue, in traffic on Santa Monica Blvd. Thank you to the kind couple who flagged him down and told him to pull over. And thank god my three little girls weren’t in the car with him.”
A Tesla Model S being driven by the husband of actor Mary McCormack caught fire on a Los Angeles last week, McCormack tweeted Friday night. (CNN image)
The NTSB makes recommendations on transportation safety issues, while NHTSA has authority to seek regulations and recalls.
In a statement, the NTSB said the trip will allow the agency to learn about fires in all battery-powered vehicles.
Tesla called the incident “an extraordinarily unusual occurrence” and says it’s working to understand the cause of the fire. No one was hurt in the blaze.
Tesla cars, which run on electricity stored in large battery packs in the floor of the vehicle, have been involved in a few recent incidents where the cars have caught fire after high-speed impacts. Gasoline-powered cars also sometimes catch fire even without a collision.
Tesla cars are 10 times less likely to catch fire than gasoline-fueled cars, the automaker said, citing data from the National Fire Protection Association and U.S. Federal Highway Administration. Lithium-ion batteries, like those in Tesla cars, also ignite more slowly and burn in a more controlled way than gasoline.
Battery fires can be harder to put out, though, and require special treatment by fire fighters. Tesla and other electric vehicle manufacturers are training first responders on how to deal with crashes and fires involving electric cars.
Mary McCormack appeared in the TV series West Wing. She also appears in a new ABC comedy series,The Kids are Alright, about an Irish family in the 1970s.
