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By Thomas Westerholm
Life & Trends Reporter
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A Tesla Cybertruck burst into flames in Colorado on Sunday, June 29, sparking a half-acre grass fire in the southwestern part of the state that very nearly turned disastrous.
In a phone interview with Newsweek, Norwood District Fire Chief John Bockrath said the Cybertruck owner had been chipping wood on a private field.
The Cybertruck was towing the woodchipper, but according to Bockrath, both the truck and the woodchipper had been off for nearly an hour when the vehicle owner noticed the fire, which quickly spread.
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"If we didn't have the resources available, this could have been disastrous," Bockrath told Newsweek.
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The Norwood Fire Department received a call about a vehicle on fire at 12:52 p.m. on Sunday, with first responders arriving on the scene five minutes later and finding the Cybertruck fully engulfed in flames.
According to Bockrath, the Cybertruck was "pretty obviously" a total loss by the time the Fire Department arrived, and the department's policy is to let electric vehicles (EVs) burn unless a human rescue needs to be made.
EVs require a significant amount of water to extinguish, and they release hazardous chemicals when they catch fire. The first responders didn't have the necessary breathing equipment to keep them safe.
'We might've had some evacuations'
More concerning, however, is the fact that Norwood is located in a section of the state that is currently experiencing "extreme" drought.
The field in which the Cybertruck ignited was full of "ladder fuels"—flammable vegetation that can turn a spark into a massive wildfire, especially in hot and windy conditions like Sunday.
"There are homes off not too far from that area that if we didn't get this under control, we might have had some evacuations," Bockrath told Newsweek. "Our primary concern was just stopping that wildland fire."
Words of Warning
No one was injured in the blaze, including the Cybertruck's owner, but Bockrath said the situation was "very close" to becoming a much larger problem.
"If we didn't have the resources, we would probably still be fighting a raging wildfire right now," he said, adding that the western slopes of Colorado are at major risk of wildfires.
"Be careful with everything. Be careful with using any type of mechanical apparatus or vehicle. Please be careful when having campfires, smoking, anything like that, because it is incredibly dry right now, and it does not take long for these fires to take off."
As of Tuesday afternoon, Bockrath said he has not been able to get in touch with Tesla on the company's dedicated first responder line.
Newsweek also reached out to Tesla on Tuesday, July 1, requesting further comment.
"The vehicle at the time was completely off," Bockrath told the publication. "The wood chipper was off. The Tesla was off and not in use when the fire started."
Bockrath said he had a "point of origin", which was the driver's side rear of the Cybertruck, but he said he doesn't have enough experience with EVs and Tesla to say what caused it with any certainty.
A Mystery
"It's very interesting that the vehicle was completely off," Bockrath said. "[The owner] had turned it off at noon that day, so nothing had been running for almost an hour before he noticed the fire.
"So probably about 45 minutes or so, both the wood chipper and the vehicle were turned off. [...] It will be interesting to see if we find out what caused it, because according to the owner, everything was shut down when the fire started."
Cybertrucks have been recalled eight times since they were launched, with more than 46,000 Cybertrucks being recalled in March due to a safety issue with a cosmetic panel that could fall off.
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