This is hard to watch.
A house fire torched two Tesla electric vehicles in the Seattle-area city of Lynnwood over the weekend, according to KIRO-TV.
The pricey cars weren’t the only item that went up in the blaze.
Video footage reveals ammunition detonating as a result of the fire.
The volume of ammunition exploding almost seemed to resemble machine gun fire. The ammo was stored in the home’s garage.
The blaze seemingly ignited hundreds of rounds of ammunition. Firefighters found cartridge casings in the area of the fire after the blaze was extinguished.
Local firefighters told KIRO that they couldn’t safely approach the vehicle at first.
Neighbors described the Teslas as “exploding” in the fire.
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Next-door neighbor Mark Ngyuen was one of the first to notice the emergency.
“I start freaking out, ran outside. I saw that their house was on fire,” said the man.
“That’s when I was like, ‘Yeah, I got to get everybody out the house.’”
Ngyuen said he spurred his family and neighbors to run to safety.
Investigators said the electric vehicles didn’t start the Sunday afternoon fire, according to The Everett (Washington) Herald. It’s not clear what did.
Ngyuen says the damage caused to the home is substantial.
“Before they boarded it up, you can see just straight to the back — everything,” he told KIRO. “The walls and ceilings are gone.”
Electric vehicles are not considered more dangerous than conventional vehicles, but it can prove more difficult to extinguish an electric vehicle fire.
Firefighters need to pour water directly onto an EV’s lithium-ion battery, if the car is one of the models that uses one.
The batteries burn hotter and longer than most batteries, and can even reignite days after an initial fire if they’re not extinguished properly.
However, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and Highway has contended that electric vehicles are safer in other respects.
They’re heavier than internal combustion engine cars, a feature that exposes their occupants to less force in multivehicle crashes.
Here’s hoping the residents of the home have a good insurance company.
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