By Jorge Casuso
March 5, 2026 -- Tesla Cybertruck fires continued to make headlines after two of the hulking futuristic vehicles were engulfed in flames in a Santa Monica parking garage Wednesday.
The vehicles were parked next to each other when they caught fire shortly before 3.30 p.m. in the structure near the intersection of Olympic and Cloverfield boulevards.
Images of smoke rising from the top floor of the multi-level structure circulated on social media, and NBC Los Angeles' NewsChopper4 captured images of firefighters housing down the badly burnt trucks.
The cause of the fire -- which was quickly contained before it spread -- is under investigation.
Tesla Cybertrucks have been involved in several fiery fatal crashes that have drawn widespread media attention.
In 2024, three college sophomores died after the Tesla Cybertruck they were in struck an embankment and tree and burst into flames in Piedmont, in the San Francisco Bay area.
The three students, who had been at a party and had alcohol and drugs in their system, were trapped in the truck and suffocated from smoke inhalation after police were unable to extinguish the flames.
Four months later in March, a Texas man was incinerated after his Tesla Cybertruck slammed into a culvert and burst into flames that reached 5,000 degrees, causing the driver's bones to disintegrate, the New York Post reported.
In June, his family filed a lawsuit that claims the Cybertruck’s battery system was 'hyper volatile' and prone to 'thermal runaway,' a chain reaction of short-circuits that unleashes uncontrollable heat," the Post wrote.
The high-profile crashes have brought attention to the potential dangers posed by Tesla Cybertruck battery packs that weigh an estimated 1,600 pounds and can burn intensely for hours.
Wednesday's fire in Santa Monica was not the first time Electric Vehicles (EVs) have burned in a City where they are commonly found on its streets.
In April 2022, two electric vehicles caught fire inside a Downtown parking garage in a crash that also involved two other vehicles ("EVs Catch Fire in Parking Structure Crash," April 4, 2022).
The fires -- thought to have been sparked by small explosions caused by the car batteries -- were extinguished in about 20 minutes.
The fires were set off shortly after Volkswagen Group announced a recall that affected more than 100,000 plug-in Audi, VW, Skoda and Seat cars worldwide.
That same month, Hyundai announced it planned to recall 51,000 Kona electric cars worldwide due to battery cell fire risks.
Fire Department officials have noted that EV fires are difficult to extinguish because the large batteries burn at extremely high temperatures and require large amounts of water to put out.