4 People Killed in Crash-Induced Tesla Fire
Four people were killed and a fifth narrowly escaped from a fiery blaze after a Tesla crashed in Toronto last week. And the lone survivor sounds extremely lucky to have walked away from the crash.
The accident occurred early last Thursday morning just after 12:00 a.m., when the driver of the vehicle, which was carrying four adult passengers, lost control and hit a guardrail, Toronto police confirmed to the CBC. The Tesla then careened into a concrete pillar and caught fire upon impact.
By the time firefighters arrive on the scene, the vehicle was fully engulfed in flames. Once crews were able to put out the blaze four people were found in the car, three men aged 26, 29, and 32, as well as a 30-year-old woman. The fifth person in the car, a 25-year-old woman, was rescued by bystanders, including a 73-year-old Canada Post driver Rick Harper.
Harper had been driving his tractor-trailer full of mail when he happened upon the immediate aftermath of the accident. When he pulled his rig over, he saw a handful of young men who were "frantically" pounding on its back passenger window of the burning car. Harper said there were no emergency vehicles on site yet and that several cars ahead of him had driven right past the wreck.
The woman was still conscious inside of the Tesla, but was trapped as none of the doors would open. Harper said he grabbed a bar from his truck, which another bystander used to break the window and rescue her from the burning vehicle.
"She came out fast, head first. She said nothing. There were no words from anybody," he recalled to the Toronto Star. "We could see the fear in her eyes. She was letting out little screams."
Deputy Fire Chief Jim Jessop later said at a press conference that the cause of the fire was the Tesla's battery cell, which was ejected during the crash. "Certainly the intensity of the fire is directly linked to the battery cells in the Tesla," Jessop said, explaining that electric vehicle fires require "exponentially more water" to extinguish.
He also noted that disposing of the battery cells also presents an issue because there is a risk of the catching on fire again up to weeks later due to the thermal runaway process that causes the battery to heat up. In this instance, the ejected battery cell was removed from the scene in a dumpster and covered in sand.
However, Jessop was quick to note that emergency services have also responded to many "horrible fires" in gasoline-powered vehicles. "So, I don't want to suggest or comment until the investigation is complete," he added.