While driving in Los Angeles, actress Mary McCormack said her husband’s Tesla Model S unexpectedly caught fire. McCormack’s husband, Michael Morris, had to quickly jump out of the car as he drove down Santa Monica Boulevard.
Along with a video, McCormack described the incident through a Twitter post, according to ABC News .
“This is what happened to my husband and his car today. No accident, out of the blue, in traffic on Santa Monica Blvd.”
At first, Morris was not aware of the flames coming out of the car. Other drivers saw the fire and told him to pull over. Fortunately, Morris was not hurt.
The Daily Mail spoke with a Tesla representative who confirmed the company is looking into exactly what happened. Despite the strange incident, the company maintains that their vehicles are much safer and less likely to catch fire than gas cars.
“We offer our support to local authorities and are glad our customer is safe,” said the Tesla spokesperson. “This is an extraordinarily unusual occurrence, and we are investigating the incident to find out what happened.”
Gasoline cars are 10 times more likely to catch fire than Tesla vehicles, according to the most recent testing data from the National Fire Protection Association. For every billion miles driven in the U.S., approximately 55 incidents of fire are reported.
@Tesla This is what happened to my husband and his car today. No accident,out of the blue, in traffic on Santa Monica Blvd. Thank you to the kind couple who flagged him down and told him to pull over. And thank god my three little girls weren’t in the car with him pic.twitter.com/O4tPs5ftVo
— Mary McCormack (@marycmccormack) June 16, 2018
Tesla says their design is much more resistant to fire as the batteries have extra insulation and multiple firewalls installed. Should a fire happen, it would supposedly spread much more slowly than in a gas car.
While some battery fires have occurred after a crash involving a Tesla vehicle, McCormack said her husband was “barely moving” at the time the Model S went up in flames. The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department confirmed no collision happened and suspects it was a battery or mechanical problem that led to the fire.
The Model S autopilot feature, which has caused numerous problems and failures for Tesla, was also ruled out. In a follow-up tweet, McCormack posted their Tesla did not have this feature.
A #Tesla Model S has spontaneously caught fire in California https://t.co/6cadr4CUW9
— Sky News (@SkyNews) June 17, 2018
Tesla founder Elon Musk, who is normally quick to respond via his Twitter account that these kinds of incidents are blown out of proportion, has been oddly quiet about Morris’ Model S fire. Musk often calls out the media for unfair and sensational reporting about Tesla.
Actress Mary McCormack is known for her roles in The West Wing and In Plain Sight . Her husband, Michael Morris, is a producer and director involved with several shows, including Brothers and Sisters , Smash, and House of Cards . They were married in 2003 and have three children.
