A Tesla Model S Plaid reportedly erupted into flames outside of Philadelphia, trapping the owner inside after electronically activated doors refused to open, the car owner’s attorneys claim. The driver escaped from the Tesla, but the fire took more than two hours for the fire department to extinguish.

The Washington Post reports that a Tesla Model S Plaid erupted into flames as the owner was driving down the road, the owner’s attorneys claim that the man was briefly trapped inside the burning vehicle after the car’s electronically activated doors refused to open.

The incident took place outside Philadelphia just days after the man received the vehicle that Tesla has hailed as the world’s quickest production car. Tesla said that it delivered the first 25 vehicles in June after CEO Elon Musk held a glamorous media event in Fremont, California.

Authorities from the Gladwyne Fire Department initially stated that they were investigating a fire involving a Tesla Model S but by Thursday, the news released had been taken down. The chief fire officer of the Lower Merion Township Fire Department, Charles McGarvey, confirmed to the Post that there was a fire Tuesday involving a Tesla Model S Plaid and it took over two hours to extinguish.

“With the Teslas, you’ve got to just put copious amounts of water on it,” he said. “After that, you’ve got to sit 45 minutes, an hour, [and] once it stops smoking you can release it to second responders. We had it towed to a location that was secured.”

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) stated that it is beginning to gather information on the incident. NHTSA spokesperson Lucia Sanchez stated: “NHTSA is aware of the Tesla vehicle fire in Gladwyne, Pennsylvania; and the agency is in touch with relevant agencies and the manufacturer to gather information about the incident. If data or investigations show a defect or an inherent risk to safety exists, NHTSA will take action as appropriate to protect the public.”

Mark Geragos, of the law firm Geragos and Geragos, is representing the owner and has called for Tesla to take the vehicles off the road. “This is a harrowing and frightening situation and an obvious major problem,” Geragos said in a statement. “Our preliminary investigation is ongoing, but we call on Tesla to sideline these cars until a full investigation can occur.”

This is far from the first Tesla that has caught fire, Breitbart News reported in April that two men died near Houston after a Tesla vehicle which was believed to be operating without anyone in the driver’s seat crashed into a tree. Sgt. Cinthya Umanzor of the Harris County Constable Precinct 4 said: “There was no one in the driver’s seat.”

The 2019 Tesla Model S vehicle was traveling a high rate of speed when it failed to correctly navigate a curve and left the roadway, crashing into a tree and exploding into flames, according to local television station KHOU-TV.

The fire was extinguished and authorities located two occupants in the vehicle. One was in the first passenger seat while the other was in the back seat of the Tesla, the report stated citing Harris County Precinct 4 Constable Mark Herman.

In December of 2020, a Tesla Model S owner named Usmaan Ahmad heard metallic bangs coming from his vehicle as he pulled off a suburban Dallas thoroughfare last month. Ahmad pulled over and moments later his five-year-old vehicle began shooting flames.

Ahmad, 41, stated that the sound he heard was like “if you were to drop an axle of a normal car,” but the vehicle was fully intact. As Ahmad stood on the side of the road watching his vehicle, the car burst into flames concentrated around the front passenger-side wheel. “This was shooting out like a flamethrower,” said Ahmad. Experts believe that the issue is related to the battery which raises questions about the safety and durability of electric vehicles as they age.

Read more at the Washington Post here.

Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or contact via secure email at the address lucasnolan@protonmail.com