Damage sustained during a hit-and-run accident caused a GMC Hummer EV Pickup to catch fire repeatedly after the initial blaze was extinguished by firefighters, news service King 5 Seattle reports.
A “black, four-door Audi with black rims” struck the GMC Hummer EV Pickup at the junction between Interstate 405 and Interstate 90 in Bellevue, Washington late on Thursday, February 22nd, forcing the EV to impact nearby jersey barriers and causing it to catch fire.
Via King 5 Seattle, Bellevue Fire Department
The Audi driver fled the scene and is being sought by Washington State Troopers. The driver of the GMC Hummer EV Pickup was able to escape the burning vehicle unscathed. At first, the fire crews responding to the accident were able to put out the flames pouring out of nearly every part of the Hummer, while Interstate 405 was temporarily closed.
Via King 5 Seattle, Bellevue Fire Department
However, after the fire was apparently quenched the first time, the vehicle reignited, and was once again put out by the fire crew. Once the Hummer EV was moved onto a tow truck, it burst into flames again, forcing firefighters to extinguish it for the third time in a row. The pickup did not catch on fire a fourth time and was successfully removed from the scene.
Doug Halbert, a battalion chief with the Bellevue Fire Department, explained that “there’s a chemical chain reaction that occurs inside the lithium-ion battery that increases the heat to the point of combustion.” He stated that an EV battery fire “requires basically zero oxygen to sustain that combustion” and as a result “it will continue to reignite.”
Halbert also pointed out that ICE vehicles catch fire more easily than EVs, stating the “rate of occurrence is drastically lower in electric vehicles than it is in gas vehicles.” He also stressed that “the percentage per 100,000 cars on the road is significantly lower” for EVs. Either he did not mention or King 5 Seattle did not report differences in the relative severity of EV versus ICE vehicle fires or the comparative ease of extinguishment.
You can view the news report on the triple Hummer EV fire here:
The accident and subsequent road closures snarled traffic throughout downtown Bellevue for several hours during the evening.
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Comments
Wow, that fire looks more intense than a gas fire! Oh, it is!
This is the kind of devastation you would see in a war with bombs and explosives. Until the fire risk is solved, I can’t justify an EV. This is way too dangerous for regular use on the highway.
So you prefer to burn in a gas fire?
Gas fires usually don’t reignite 2-3 times after being put out. That was not only bad for the owner, but could have hurt or killed the tow truck driver too. Absolutely no way I would park any of these in a garage or even next to the house.
EVS are driving up everyone’s insurance premiums due to the cost of repairs, cause more times than not a when they are damaged they are total loses. Well that cost is spread around, its not just the ev owner footing the bill.
Why anyone wants to drive with 150 year old technology , gas engines !! I have no idea they are obsolete , been driving all electric for over 7years never had any issues + no maintenance
Thus is the 21st century not the 19th !!
Im glad you are happy with yours. You have every right to choose what you want. How would you feel though if your insurance went up because of another type of car not many people actually wanted? Oh and that 19 century technology will be used heavily in the transition to hydrogen, same engine just different fuel, and get this, it will make evs and their technology obsolete. Not only does is still an ice, it sounds like one and has the power of one and the only thing that comes out the tail pipe is water vapor.
I’d suspect those future hydrogen “engines” will mostly be fuel cells and much more efficient and low maintenance versus reusing internal combustion engines for a different fuel.
The first electric car was built in 1888 in Germany. Your technology is just as old if not older. It was bad then and still just as worthless now.
I have been driving electric for 10 years and now have my fifth EV, a Cadillac Lyriq. Never a problem. No dangerous gasoline in my garage.
That 19th Century technology powered the emergency vehicles that tried to put this mess out. BTW, electric vehicles were around as ICE vehicles but the failed miserably over the years.
Multiple fire departments in this area (Seattle Eastside) have or are getting electric fire engines.
Why anyone wants to drive with 150 year old technology , gas engines !! I have no idea they are obsolete , been driving all electric for over 7years never had any issues + no maintenance
Thus is the 21st century not the 19th !!
that’s OK you are dead after the first fire.
I’m sure the Audi was badly damaged. Maybe it was decrepit to begin with. I sense some rage against the Hummer itself (not the driver) here and I get why.
The Hummer EV is a weapon of mass destruction. It needs banned.
I don’t know if I agree with that statement. I’d say it’s just a POS that was not designed well.
F EV s
EVs are too unsafe, we must ban them for public safety.
Just one more reason to stick with internal combustion engines
I wonder what the insurance industry charges for full coverage on one of these?
They keep saying that the reason for the ungodly increases in insurance premiums is because is because of repair costs. This is a great example.
And the idiots running our Pentagon want EV tanks and other vehicles? Just one major reason to get the current idiot out of the Whitehouse! He doesn’t give a rats ass about our military members.
Thanks Craig. You are 100% right.
You mean like the other guy too who trashes the military…can you say McCain, Nikki H husband, etc. Oh I see. At least be consistent if you think on cares more than the other.
The only idiot here is you.
Time to get rid of Joe Pinocchio!!!!!!!!!!!!
So far in my 50 years of parking multiple different ICE vehicles in my garage and shop no fires yet. Jeeps, trucks, Corvettes, motorcycles.
I think I will continue to play it safe and go gas up !
Concern trolls can get a LFP battery EV then if fire is your concern.
There was a hummer ev fire up here in bc on the port Mann bridge that ignited after a wheel falling off, the news did not say it was a hummer ev because our government is pushing to phase out ice vehicles, they just called it a pickup truck.