Video of F-150 Lightning fire in Dearborn reveals melted trucks, responders’ obscenities

Police bodycam footage from an F-150 Lightning battery fire in a Dearborn holding lot on Feb. 4 revealed dramatic images of three melted pickup trucks, according to video footage released by the Dearborn Police Department.

Dearborn police and fire personnel responded to the incident, which involved three electric vehicles and no injuries and resulted in a five-week production shutdown. The automaker worked with battery supplier SK On to identify the cause and resolution prior to restart. In March, after consulting with its supplier, Ford recalled 18 of the 2023 F-150 Lightning pickups.

Video footage, obtained by CNBC through a Michigan Freedom of Information Act request, "totaled about two hours of video, including overlapping footage, from 17 police bodycams and vehicle dashcams between 3:36 p.m. and 4:22 p.m. ET, according to time stamps on the bodycam videos,” CNBC said.

Car battery fires burn hotter than other fires and require massive quantities of water or special chemicals to extinguish. In this case, one Ford pickup caught fire and spread to the other two.

"Police officers responding to the blaze described the vehicles as being 'engulfed in flames' and can be heard on video worrying that the vehicles could 'blow up,' " CNBC reported Thursday.

The video includes audio that illustrates the gravity of the situation, as reported by CNBC:

• “We’re not putting this (expletive) out. Look at it,” said one responding officer.

• First responders can be heard on video expressing concern about how much water is needed to put out EV fires and whether a special foam would be required.

• “They have to put like a whole (expletive) lake on it to put them out,” the same officer said during the event.

'High voltage'

In its letter to federal regulators dated March 15, Ford said the reason for the recall of vehicles was "High voltage battery pack may short circuit" and create a fire risk. The fire occurred while the vehicle was charging in a holding lot during a pre-delivery quality check and was caused by an internal short circuit due to a manufacturing issue when cells in the battery were at a high state of charge," according to documents posted on the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) site.

Ford said in its chronology report that engineers determined there was no evidence of a charging fault.

“Together with SK On, we confirmed the root causes and swiftly implemented quality actions,” Ford said in a statement to CNBC. “The Rouge Electric Vehicle Center has been back up and running since March 13 and is back to full production and shipping vehicles to customers.”

The Detroit Free Press requested the video, images and audio Thursday and left messages for city of Dearborn spokesman Bilal Baydoun and the Dearborn Police spokesman, Cpl. Dan Bartok. A message seeking comment about the incident was left for Dearborn Deputy Fire Chief Laura Ridenour.

Ford spokeswoman Emma Bergg declined to comment to the Free Press on the release of the audio and video, emphasizing, "This was one single fire. We're really proud of the team, and how quickly they responded to handle the situation." She confirmed the automaker “took part in an information-sharing session on how to handle battery fires in summer 2022 with members of the Dearborn fire department."

Bergg told the Free Press, "We have a long history of working closely with emergency workers and first responders on auto safety issues and that continues as we enter the EV era.  We’re further evaluating opportunities to help educate on this important topic."

Detail of battery flaw

Ford wrote to regulators that from Feb. 6 to Feb. 9, "the Ford engineering team de-energized the highvoltage battery pack to allow access to the vehicle. Using computed tomography (CT) scans of the high voltage (HV) battery arrays, Ford and the supplier independently concluded the initiation point of the fire occurred within one of the HV battery arrays. ... Continued investigation by Ford and the supplier found that the vehicle fire started whencathode aluminum tabs contacted the anode electrode material, causing an internal short circuit when the cells were at a high state of charge. Ford and the supplier identified the processes on the supplier cell manufacturing line that led to these contact conditions. The Ford engineering team was able to replicate the contact condition through a Design of Experiments performed at the supplier. While the CT scans and teardown parts from the suspect windowconfirmed the condition, parts from outside the window and from the other cell manufacturing lines did not show evidence of the contact conditions."

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Contact Phoebe Wall Howard: 313-618-1034 or phoward@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @phoebesaid.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: F-150 Lightnings were melted after battery fire, police video shows