TX Crews Battle Fatal Tesla Crash Fire

Editor's note: Although firefighters were dousing the car's wreckage for hours, crews were able to put out the active fire within minutes of reaching the scene. Read what The Woodlands Fire Chief Palmer Buck has to say about the challenges his department faced during this call in a Firehouse.com News exclusive.

Two people died Saturday after their Tesla struck a tree in The Woodlands and burst into flames, a fiery crash which took hours to extinguish.

Woodlands Fire department, Montgomery County Hospital District and Cypress Creek EMS were dispatched around 9 p.m. to a fire in the woods in the Carlton Woods Subdivision on Hammock Dunes Place.

Several neighbors had called reporting a fire in the woods, and that a car had crashed and exploded, Palmer Buck, the Woodlands Fire Department chief said.

When the responding units arrived at the scene firefighters discovered the bodies of two males in the Tesla Model S, according to the Montgomery County Police Reporter. Due to the high energy batteries, Woodlands firefighters worked close to four hours to extinguish the fire. Firefighters used over 23,000 gallons of water to put out the flames.

The vehicle's batteries kept reigniting, which isn't unusual for electric vehicles, Buck said.

Harris County Hazmat also responded to the scene. The cause of the crash is still being investigated.

___

(c)2021 the Houston Chronicle

Visit the Houston Chronicle at www.chron.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.