This is a story that actually took place nearly a month ago, but a detailed investigation by the NTSB has brought fresh attention to it. In the early morning hours of August 19th, an unnamed, long-haul big rig driver was traveling along I-80 northeast of San Franciso. Much of the state was already going up in flames because of the summer wildfires, but the region near Emigrant Gap was still relatively untouched. Shortly after three in the morning, the driver failed to navigate a curve in the highway and went off the road, crashing into some trees down a short slope. Thankfully, the driver escaped with only minor injuries.

The crash was only the beginning of the driver's problems, however. He wasn't driving a standard big rig. He was at the wheel of a new Tesla Semi, an electric vehicle with one of the largest EV batteries on the market. Shortly after striking the tree, the truck's battery basically exploded, starting a fire that would consume everything around. Firefighters were dispatched to the scene to battle the blaze including a helicopter and a couple of firetrucks. The fire raged for 15 hours reaching temperatures of 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The helicopter was forced to drop flame-retardant foam on it, finally extinguishing the flames well into the next evening. The NTSB estimates that firefighters dumped in excess of 50,000 gallons of water on the truck's battery. (KRQE)

California firefighters had to douse a flaming battery in a Tesla Semi with about 50,000 gallons (190,000 liters) of water to extinguish flames after a crash, the National Transportation Safety Board said Thursday.

In addition to the huge amount of water, firefighters used an aircraft to drop fire retardant on the “immediate area” of the electric truck as a precautionary measure, the agency said in a preliminary report.

Firefighters said previously that the battery reached temperatures of 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit (540 Celsius) while it was in flames.

While we can be grateful that nobody was seriously injured in this incident, it really should serve as a reminder of exactly how ridiculous this headlong rush into the use of EVs for everything under the sun has become. As noted above, California was already in the midst of battling multiple wildfires all over the state. They could ill afford to waste these sorts of resources on a vehicular accident. Had this been a standard, gas-powered truck, the crash site could have been cleaned up in a couple of hours at most and the highway would have been reopened without wasting that much water and flame retardant foam.

Further, we were already aware of the danger of large EV batteries being exposed to water, particularly salt water. (Last summer a cargo ship carrying a load of EVs caught fire and it burned for days. The fire could be seen from low Earth orbit.) But this truck didn't plow into a body of salt water. It hit a tree. This should have been a non-incident, but the Tesla Semi's battery just exploded anyway. These things are simply not safe and everyone knows it but we continue cranking them out in the name of appeasing the climate goddess.

Where are the voices of all the supposed environmentalists who are dedicated to the green energy agenda so they can "save the planet" on our behalf? In a single day, those firefighters were forced to waste 50,000 gallons of water in a region that was already parched by drought. What sort of toxic concoction was boiling off of that truck's battery all of that time and what impact did it have on the local wildlife and water quality? Nobody seems to be talking about these questions because it is now considered politically toxic to bring them up.

Do you remember when all of those EVs were catching fire in Florida after Hurricane Ian? People who owned EVs were being cautioned by safety officials to not park their cars in their garages or near their homes. This was a coastal area of Florida. Hurricanes happen. It's just a fact of life. But just in case the hurricane wasn't bad enough, people were being instructed to park their EVs out on the streets, preferably not under a tree. They knew that the batteries would start exploding, but nobody suggested that perhaps the technology behind these vehicles really wasn't ready for prime time. This is simply insanity, but nobody wants to talk about it because they have sold their souls to the "new green agenda." Congratulations, America. Stock up on marshmallows because you'll probably have plenty of fires to roast them over. (That was not serious advice. The marshmallows would be highly toxic.)