Posted on 10/28/2026 6:04:14 PM PDT by george76
Hayward looks to be about two-thirds of the way up the I-880 if you were heading north to Oakland from San Jose. So, yeah - this had some sincere traffic impacts.
All lanes of Interstate 880 in Hayward are open Wednesday morning after an electric Tesla semitruck caught fire on the freeway during the Tuesday evening commute.
According to the California Highway Patrol, the fire was first reported in the southbound direction of the freeway between Winton Avenue and the Highway 92 interchange around 5:35 p.m. Officials closed the freeway in both directions due to the potential risk of hazardous chemical smoke.
And, man - what a fire.
...
Miraculously, the driver got out in one piece, and he said he had no idea what started it. All he knew was that his truck was suddenly on fire
...
.According to the CHP, the semi's lithium battery flames were incredibly difficult to extinguish.
The trucks driver only told patrol officers that the rig simply caught fire and didn't know why.
By the time the fire departments got the thing under control, you could see that there was little to nothing left of the cab. It melted down like a wet witch in a castle corner.
...
The California Highway Patrol (CHP) closed both directions due to the risk of hazardous chemical smoke. Northbound reopened at about 8:40 p.m.
- CHP said the battery fire could burn for 15–18 hours, and southbound would stay closed until it was out and the truck was safe to remove.
- No injuries were reported and no other vehicles were involved. The driver said the truck simply caught fire. The cause is under investigation.
Obviously, the cause is under investigation, and Pat from StacheD Training says they may never know what happened. There is so little left of the cab that it's going to be nearly impossible for investigators to pinpoint the reason it started, and once you hear about the size of the batteries in these things, that explains that.
Pat says depending on the model truck, it would have three battery packs, which 'roughly equate' to the batteries in seven to eight Tesla Model Y's.
...
The CHP said they needed the fire consuming the Tesla’s lithium ion battery cells to be fully extinguished before they re-opened the freeway.
Authorities diverted traffic off the freeway at Winton Avenue.
In a social media post, the CHP warned drivers to “expect extreme delays and use alternative routes if possible.”
...
A similar fire happened in 2024 when a Tesla Semi crashed on Interstate 80 near Emigrant Gap, about 70 miles northeast of Sacramento. The freeway was closed for about 15 hours while firefighters made sure the batteries were cool enough to recover the truck.
Tesla's getting kind of beaten up here, too, because they're the best-known ones who have these operating on the roads right now. Tesla lovers are sensitive to the fact that the name brand is in the headlines, where it probably wouldn't be were it any other manufacturer on earth. And it was easy to prove their point.
Here's a recent garbage truck fire headline. This vehicle fire also closed a major thoroughfare for a significant period, but good luck finding out who built the garbage truck.
Fresno crews battle electric garbage truck fire; road closure result
No, the problem isn't 'Tesla.' This name-checking in headlines is the media pounding Musk any way they can.
The problem is the technology to fight these fires hasn't kept up with what the vehicles are now capable of. Shoot - it hasn't kept up with putting out a spontaneous e-bike battery fire.
When one burning truck shuts down everything around it for half a day, if not longer, and uses up ten to twenty times the valuable resources to (hopefully) extinguish it, with legitimate concerns afterward about toxic chemical residues and fumes, etc., that's the problem.
It shouldn't be up to fire departments to figure it out on the fly, either.
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I think the Tesla Semi Truck is a fine piece of engineering, but in the end, the issue is still with the batteries.
They may eventually find a way around that electric battery stupidity, cost, complexity, charging time, maintenance, and most of all, fire hazard. But it has not arrived yet.
The concept of electric vehicles is attractive. The drawbacks of battery technology are not.
The first time some kind of EV battery fire occurs on a crowded ferry far from land, this is going to come to a head.
There are insurance financial hazards on the near horizon. At some point, insurers are going to jack premiums way up on ferries, buildings that garage EVs including personal homes.
Sure. Standard ICE vehicles suffer car fires too. But those issues are not even in the same universe as EV fires.
Its batterg quality and sealed buils that make teslas having catastrophic thermal runaway fires extremely unusual and the chinese ev’s, scooters and bikes much more common.
It still can happen. Normal fire extinguishers and water wont do anything.
One of he vibrant and exciting links I’ve had here about EV fires had the firefighter say they spent hours of the fire supposedly out but then reigniting and sometimes in an impound lot they get a report that the vehicle fire started up again hours later.
Colorful images....Not just this story ones.
https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=EV+semi+truck+on+fire&FORM=HDRSC3
Did you see that - Felicity Ace, carrying ~4,000 vehicles including Porsches, Audis and Bentleys, electric cars with lithium-ion batteries, caught fire in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean .. then it sank..
The lithium-ion batteries burned for ~ two weeks after the crew was safely evacuated from the smoking hulk of the Felicity Ace..
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4040097/posts
Even without catching on fire one can only imagine how these trucks tear up the road . Semi trucks already cause major issues and electric trucks weigh even more!
The cargo ship Morning Midas sank in the Pacific Ocean on June 23, 2025, after a multi-week fire that started on a deck carrying electric vehicles
I wonder if the Obama Fanbois will, again, show up here telling us how great Electric Trucks are.
Thank you..
Electric bus bursts into flames, sets nearby vehicles on fire
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T71cVhxG_v4
“Miraculously, the driver got out in one piece, and he said he had no idea what started it.”
Probably having too many battery cells too close together.
Oppsie.....
I worked in San Leandro and lived in Hayward for a little over a year, 2016-2017. That was my route. I took 880 and exited on Winton Drive going home in the afternoons.
There was an easy alternate route as well by taking Hesperian Drive. But I’m betting that was all backed up too.
Yes. but...it was all cars wth a crew of...what? 15 or 20? (I don’t know how those things are crewed)
But can you imagine-a thousand people on there? Wow. That would suck.
Li is dangerous to fool around with....
Associated Press (March 1, 2022): Massive cargo ship carrying cars sinks in mid-Atlantic
Excerpt:
It wasn’t clear how many cars were onboard the ship, but vessels of the Felicity Ace’s size can carry at least 4,000 vehicles... The ship was transporting electric and non-electric vehicles, according to Portuguese authorities. Suspicion on what started the fire on Feb. 16 has fallen on lithium batteries used in electric vehicles, though authorities say they have no firm evidence about the cause.
Follow-up from the Daily Mail: Race to salvage fire-ravaged US-bound cargo ship drifting in the Atlantic with thousands of supercars on board including Porsches, Bentleys and Lamborghinis with blaze fueled by batteries in electric vehicles
Associated Press (July 27, 2023): A car-carrying cargo ship burning near a Dutch bird habitat stokes environmental worries
Excerpt:
The Dutch coast guard said Wednesday that the vessel was carrying 2,857 cars, including 25 electric cars. Some reports Thursday suggested there might be more than that, but the coast guard said it could not provide confirmation.The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board has warned about the possible dangers of electric vehicle battery fires, The hazard stems from thermal runaway, a chemical reaction that causes uncontrolled battery temperature and pressure increases.
Follow-up from Daily Mail: Race to salvage sinking cargo ship carrying 3,000 vehicles including 350 Mercedes as it burns out of control in North Sea after fire 'caused by electric car'
-PJ
So here’s me thinking about all those shiny new EV buses that Jefferson County, CO are so proud of.
Not to mention running electric heaters to keep those things warm inside on cold winter days.
They should be great!
Great points...
Insane.
One can imagine the insurance form that Lloyd’s of London would have the owner of a ship fill out for that voyage...
LLOYD’S OF LONDON INSURANCE APPLICATION
**************************************************
QUESTION 1: Is your vessel scheduled to carry any electric vehicles?
-PJ
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