Advertisement

Tesla Owner Breaks Window to Escape Before Vehicle Catches Fire in Vancouver

A driver said he had to break his Tesla’s window to climb out as his vehicle shut down before catching fire in North Vancouver, British Columbia, on May 20.

James Lester filmed a video that shows a Tesla car with a broken window at the intersection of Mountain Hwy and Hunter near his distillery. The driver says to Lester that he smelt smoke and that the car’s battery had died before he got out.

Moments later, the car catches fire and the firefighters extinguish the flames.

“I had to smash the window, I kicked through the window because everything was stuck,” the driver says to an onlooker as he watches the vehicle burn. "The power didn’t work, the door didn’t open, the window didn’t go down. "

According to CTV News, Tesla didn’t respond to their request for comment on the incident. Credit: James Lester via Storyful

Video Transcript

- [INAUDIBLE] going into flames-- or not flames, but it's smoking up. My battery died on my Tesla, and I don't know what happened.

[SIREN WAILING]

- Car is on fire. They were asking me if I need help when I request the service.

- Yeah. OK, bye.

- Everybody's out of the car, sir?

- Yeah, yeah, yeah, that was-- I had to smash the window to--

- Did you really?

- Are you kidding?

- Yeah.

- Wow.

- Yeah, I kicked the-- I kick through the window.

- Yeah?

- Because everything stops.

- Yeah.

- The-- the power didn't work. The door didn't open. The-- the windows didn't go down. So I'm like, hey, I need [MUTED] out of this car.

- Yeah.

- So I just kicked through.

- Because you knew it was smoking. Did you smell it in the car?

- Yeah, I could feel it in my [MUTED]-- in my lungs, man.

- You guys should probably get on the other side of the street just in case, right? I don't know. If it blows, I don't want you guys to be affected.

- Thank you.

- Holy [MUTED].

- Hey, right here! Right here!

- Right here!

- Hey, hey!

- Is this you?

- Yeah.

- All right.

- I need my golf clubs.

- [INAUDIBLE]

- Everything is dead.

- Nobody in it.

- No.

- Expensive, though.

- [INAUDIBLE]

- $90,000 car. [INAUDIBLE] six months.

- Six months?

- Yeah.

- [INAUDIBLE]

- Yeah, I've only driven it [INAUDIBLE].

- [INAUDIBLE]

- I literally just pulled up to the [INAUDIBLE] my left side, and all of a sudden, it said error, error. And then all of a sudden, I see smoke [INAUDIBLE]. I couldn't even-- everything stopped. Everything's electric, so everything stopped.

Door couldn't open. I couldn't get the window down. So I just had to [INAUDIBLE] kick through it.