Tesla Model 3 crash sends hundreds of scorching battery cells flying, starting house fire

A Tesla Model 3 crashed in Corvallis, Oregon, flinging hot battery cells far from the crash site

The Corvallis Police Department said the driver was going over 160km/h and sustained only minor injuries

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The Model 3 was going faster than 160km/h when it ran off the road and into a power pole, police said. Photo: City of Corvallis Police Department

Published: 3:59pm, 20 Nov 2020Updated: 4:02pm, 20 Nov 2020

Tesla has caught heat in the past for its battery packs bursting into flames, but a recent incident in Corvallis, Oregon shows that the electric vehicles may pose a fire hazard not just to the cars themselves, but to the surrounding environment, too.

In a severe Tuesday night crash spotted by The Drive, a speeding Model 3 collided with a power pole, shearing the pole at its base and hurling bits of the car far from the crash site, according to a statement from the City of Corvallis Police Department. The Model 3 was obliterated and its battery pack was destroyed, flinging burning-hot battery cells around the neighbourhood.

Battery cells broke through windows into two different homes – one landed on a person's lap, while the other came to rest in a second-floor bedroom, catching bedsheets on fire, the Corvallis Police Department said in the statement.

The crash launched hundreds of hot battery cells around the scene. Photo: City of Corvallis Police Department

“A tire was ripped from the car during the collision and struck the second storey siding of a nearby apartment complex with such force that it ruptured the water pipes within the wall, destroying the bathroom to the apartment and flooding the downstairs portion of the apartment as well.”

Police said that the driver was travelling in excess of 160km/h (100mph) when he lost control of the vehicle, ploughing into the power pole, two trees, and a junction box. The driver fled the scene on foot and was transported to the hospital with minor injuries, miraculously. Police charged him with a driving under the influence, hit and run, criminal mischief, reckless driving, and reckless endangering.