Video: Siblings narrowly escape explosion after Tesla catches fire
Siblings Sunit and Dilpreet Mayall said they barely made it out of their family's Tesla alive after the car burst into flames over the weekend.
The California siblings said they were driving along Highway 50 Saturday afternoon when they started hearing popping sounds. Sunit, who was behind the wheel, said she pulled over to the side of the highway and saw flames. She said her brother told her they needed to run away as fast as possible. In a video Sunit took right after she and Dilpreet got away, flames can be seen exploding from the Tesla seconds later.
"We could have died in that moment," Sunit said. "I was really scared. I was panicking a lot and just re-living it. I'm getting emotional right now. But it was really scary."
Dilpreet said he and his sister were able to make it out relatively unscathed, but his mind immediately went to what would have happened if other loved ones were driving the family Tesla at the time instead.
"If one of my parents was in the car instead of us — we share the car — we might not be as quick. And it was a matter of two, three seconds," Dilpreet said.
Fire crews said they used around 6,000 gallons of water to extinguish the flames from the Tesla, an electric car. They compared that to the roughly 700 gallons that a regular gas car engulfed in flames takes.
Sacramento Metro Fire said the fire started in the battery compartment. But Sunit and Dilpreet said they still want to know why this happened. They said the car was serviced just a few weeks ago and no warnings popped up.
"We did reach out to Tesla. We tried to be in contact with them multiple times," Dilpreet said. "All we're asking for is just a little diagnostic or report."
As the siblings continue to process what they went through, they said they are blessed to still be breathing.
"We got lucky. We got really, really lucky," Sunit said.
Sister station KCRA has tried contacting Tesla to learn more about what might have caused the car fire, but was unable to reach them. Meanwhile, The Mayall family said they have filed a claim with their car insurance and are currently waiting to hear back about the cost of the damage.