Dawg.
No sooner do I get a chance to write a piece on a couple of Li-ion battery stories than a big EV-related one happens that very afternoon.
I can't imagine what kind of mess this was for the folks trying to get home. Hayward looks to be about two-thirds of the way up the I-880 if you were heading north to Oakland from San Jose. So, yeah - this had some sincere traffic impacts.
All lanes of Interstate 880 in Hayward are open Wednesday morning after an electric Tesla semitruck caught fire on the freeway during the Tuesday evening commute.
According to the California Highway Patrol, the fire was first reported in the southbound direction of the freeway between Winton Avenue and the Highway 92 interchange around 5:35 p.m. Officials closed the freeway in both directions due to the potential risk of hazardous chemical smoke.
And, man - what a fire.
A Tesla semi-trailer caught fire in Hayward, California, on October 27, prompting the closure of Interstate 880.
— CBS News (@CBSNews) October 28, 2026
The California Highway Patrol (CHP) announced “a complete shutdown of both northbound and southbound lanes due to the potential risk of hazardous chemical smoke.”… pic.twitter.com/5jGj7Jm9SH
This catches the early stages, and then the thing just cooks off. I hope everyone held their breath as they went by.
Tesla Semi catches fire near Interstate 880 in the San Francisco Bay Area, California.
— DriveGreenLiveGreen (@DriveGreen80167) October 28, 2026
Video recorded from multiple angles as the truck begins to burn and completely engulfs the flames. https://t.co/SCkhjsw98H pic.twitter.com/XXwLSKjrJE
Miraculously, the driver got out in one piece, and he said he had no idea what started it. All he knew was that his truck was suddenly on fire.
...According to the CHP, the semi's lithium battery flames were incredibly difficult to extinguish.
The trucks driver only told patrol officers that the rig simply caught fire and didn't know why.
By the time the fire departments got the thing under control, you could see that there was little to nothing left of the cab. It melted down like a wet witch in a castle corner.
$TSLA [Tesla Semi catches fire on I-880 in Hayward, CA] - On Oct 27, around 5:35–5:45 p.m. local time, a Tesla Semi's lithium-ion battery caught fire in the southbound lanes of I-880 near Route 92 in Hayward. - The California Highway Patrol (CHP) closed both directions due to the risk of hazardous chemical smoke. Northbound reopened at about 8:40 p.m. - CHP said the battery fire could burn for 15–18 hours, and southbound would stay closed until it was out and the truck was safe to remove. - No injuries were reported and no other vehicles were involved. The driver said the truck simply caught fire. The cause is under investigation.
— Tsla Chan (@Tslachan) October 28, 2026
...- The California Highway Patrol (CHP) closed both directions due to the risk of hazardous chemical smoke. Northbound reopened at about 8:40 p.m.
- CHP said the battery fire could burn for 15–18 hours, and southbound would stay closed until it was out and the truck was safe to remove.
- No injuries were reported and no other vehicles were involved. The driver said the truck simply caught fire. The cause is under investigation.
Obviously, the cause is under investigation, and Pat from StacheD Training says they may never know what happened. There is so little left of the cab that it's going to be nearly impossible for investigators to pinpoint the reason it started, and once you hear about the size of the batteries in these things, that explains that.
Pat says depending on the model truck, it would have three battery packs, which 'roughly equate' to the batteries in seven to eight Tesla Model Y's.
Wowsahs.
He also notes that the best source of information will be the last data points the semi transmitted to Tesla before the fire destroyed the vehicle.
#BREAKING: Major mess after #Tesla Semi-Truck catches fire on freeway. Southbound 880 in #Hayward remains closed (since 5:45p). @CHP_HQ says “burn time” could be 15 hours. @nbcbayarea @Teslarati pic.twitter.com/WHN2BPgO3D
— Raj Mathai (@rajmathai) October 28, 2026
What's amazing, too, is the trailer the semi cab was hauling - it really doesn't look nearly as bad as you'd expect, considering the wear and what it went through.
Eventually, after lots of water and time, they got the freeway open.
...The CHP said the northbound lanes opened about 8:40 p.m. but that the southbound lanes were closed until about 3:30 a.m. Wednesday. The CHP said they needed the fire consuming the Tesla’s lithium ion battery cells to be fully extinguished before they re-opened the freeway.
Authorities diverted traffic off the freeway at Winton Avenue.
In a social media post, the CHP warned drivers to “expect extreme delays and use alternative routes if possible.”
There were no immediate reports of injuries.
A similar fire happened in 2024 when a Tesla Semi crashed on Interstate 80 near Emigrant Gap, about 70 miles northeast of Sacramento. The freeway was closed for about 15 hours while firefighters made sure the batteries were cool enough to recover the truck.
Tesla's getting kind of beaten up here, too, because they're the best-known ones who have these operating on the roads right now. Tesla lovers are sensitive to the fact that the name brand is in the headlines, where it probably wouldn't be were it any other manufacturer on earth. And it was easy to prove their point.
Here's a recent garbage truck fire headline. This vehicle fire also closed a major thoroughfare for a significant period, but good luck finding out who built the garbage truck.
Fresno crews battle electric garbage truck fire; road closure result
No, the problem isn't 'Tesla.' This name-checking in headlines is the media pounding Musk any way they can.
The problem is the technology to fight these fires hasn't kept up with what the vehicles are now capable of. Shoot - it hasn't kept up with putting out a spontaneous e-bike battery fire.
When one burning truck shuts down everything around it for half a day, if not longer, and uses up ten to twenty times the valuable resources to (hopefully) extinguish it, with legitimate concerns afterward about toxic chemical residues and fumes, etc., that's the problem.
It shouldn't be up to fire departments to figure it out on the fly, either.
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