Fort Worth firefighters needed almost 18 hours to put out a fire at the Frank Kent Cadillac dealership on the city’s west side. It started late on a Friday afternoon. Eight vehicles were damaged: six electric SUVs destroyed, and two other Cadillac EVs with minor damage. No one was hurt. The blaze is believed to have started in a single vehicle, likely an Escalade IQ, and the cause is under investigation.
Crews arriving at the scene found the fire already involving several EVs and spreading fast. They draped special blankets over the burning vehicles to hold the flames in place, which gave them time to drive other EVs out of harm’s way. Even so, they worked through the night in two-hour rotations.
Why the batteries fight back
EV batteries are designed to keep water out, and that makes it hard for a hose stream to reach the cells that are burning. The chemistry compounds the problem. Battery fires can burn much hotter than gasoline fires and sometimes release poisonous gases.
The mechanism is thermal runaway. Adam Barowy, who directs battery fire research at the Fire Safety Research Institute, explains it as chemical reactions inside a damaged, overheated or overcharged cell producing heat that sets off more reactions. The buildup can release flammable gas and ignite the cell. Even well-made batteries can fail this way under severe enough conditions, he said, but cheap materials, bad charging habits and damaged components make it likelier.
The Escalade IQ
The Escalade IQ arrived for the 2025 model year with one of the largest batteries fitted to a production vehicle. Its 24-module pack holds 205 kilowatt-hours of usable energy, good for an estimated 465 miles. In July, certain 2026 Escalade IQ and long-wheelbase IQL models were recalled because an improperly secured internal component could shift and damage the battery. GM is replacing the affected packs. No earlier fires in the SUVs have been reported, and it is not yet clear whether the dealership fire has anything to do with the recall.
What the numbers look like elsewhere
Philadelphia’s fire department responds to nearly one lithium-ion battery event a week, according to an October 13 article by Battalion Chief Kevin Donahue and UL Standards & Engagement CEO Jeff Marootian. Not every event becomes a fire. The toll can be severe. On October 11, an e-bike battery in an upstairs bedroom started a fire in a Kensington rowhome. A 3-year-old girl died that Sunday, and her 22-year-old mother died days later. The house had no working smoke alarms. On June 19, a charging e-bike battery set off another fire on South Mildred Street that killed two people; that home had working alarms, but the flames moved so quickly that residents noticed them first.
Barowy’s team reproduced residential e-bike fires in experiments. “We saw as little as a minute is available for escaping a residence,” he said. His advice is not to charge overnight or unattended, to use only approved chargers and to avoid cheap aftermarket batteries.
New York shows what regulation can do. The fire department there recorded 268 lithium-ion battery fires in 2023, with 18 deaths, and 277 fires in 2024 with six deaths. After lawmakers required e-bikes, e-scooters and their batteries sold in the city to meet recognized safety certification, battery fire deaths fell to one in 2025, according to the FDNY. Barowy said requiring certification has helped.
Sources
- Several Cadillac Escalade IQs Destroyed In EV-Fueled Fire That Lasted 18 Hours
- Lithium polymer battery
- How to prevent lithium-ion battery fires in Philadelphia
Photo: Olton Hall (CC BY 2.0)
