A Tesla Model S reportedly caught fire moments after driver Usmaan Ahmad pulled the car over on a Dallas road in November.
Ahmad pulled the vehicle over after he heard “metallic” bangs while driving the Tesla, according to a report published Monday by the Washington Post. Ahmad claimed the noise sounding as “if you were to drop an axle of a normal car” on the ground, the outlet reported.
“The combustion of Ahmad’s car is one of a growing number of fire incidents involving older Tesla Model S and X vehicles that experts say are related to the battery, raising questions about the safety and durability of electric vehicles as they age”$TSLA https://t.co/0jVjur1VHu
— JC Oviedo (@JCOviedo6) December 28, 2020
After he pulled his five-year-old car to the side of the road, the car erupted in flames near the front passenger-side wheel, according to the Washington Post.
“This was shooting out like a flamethrower,” Ahmad recalled to the outlet. (RELATED: Maryland Attorney Sues Tesla As The Electric Vehicle Maker’s Technology Comes Under Fire)
The fire in Ahmad’s Tesla Model S is being investigated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the Washington Post reported. NHTSA spokesman Sean Rushton confirmed the agency had contacted Tesla regarding the matter as well, the outlet reported.
Tesla claims its electric cars are less likely to catch fire than gasoline cars, the outlet reported. In 2018, Tesla claimed its electric cars saw five fires per billion miles traveled, vs. gasoline cars, which had 55 fires per billion miles traveled in the United States, Washington Post reported.
Tesla has details on how to deal with a battery-related fire in it’s Emergency Response Guide on its website.
“Battery fires can take up to 24 hours to extinguish,” the response guide for the Model S on Tesla’s website said. “Consider allowing the battery to burn while protecting exposures.”