Electric semi-trucks catch fire, company suspects ‘foul play’

By Kit Silavong

Click here for updates on this story

    PHOENIX (KPHO) — At least four electric semi-trucks caught fire Friday morning in Phoenix and the semi-truck manufacturing company suspects “foul play.”

Reports of a fire near 40th Street and Broadway Road were called in just before 5 a.m. Phoenix and Tempe fire crews arrived and found four semi-trucks on fire. As the fires are battery related, subduing the fire is different than if the semi-trucks were gas-powered.

“In situations like this, there’s thermal runaway, which is an uncontrollable self-heating state,” Phoenix Fire Department Captain Todd Keller said. “These are extremely hard to extinguish.” Once Phoenix and Tempe’s hazardous situations teams cool down the batteries, Keller said, Nikola Motor Company will eventually take the batteries to a recycling center where they will be fully discharged.

When asked about whether the fire was deliberately caused, Keller said investigators are looking into what caused the fire. However, the automaker says a person was seen in the area of the trucks that caught fire.

Nikola has been in the spotlight recently when it announced it was cutting roughly 270 jobs, including 120 jobs in Arizona. The company isn’t the first electric vehicle company to lay off workers. In March, electric vehicle startup Lucid Motors laid off 1,300 employees, including over 900 in Casa Grande, calling it a “cost-cutting move.” The news came just days after the company recalled hundreds of cars for sudden power loss. Casa Grande employees told Arizona’s Family they felt blindsided by the decision. Some were laid off after a shift, while others said their badge didn’t work when they went to work. Nikola officials confirmed they’re assisting those recently laid off.

Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.