Walmart lawsuit photos reveal scorched roofs and massive damage as it claims Tesla solar panels caught fire at 7 stores
A fire broke out on the roof of a Walmart store in Indio, California on May 29, 2018.
Walmart says that the fire resulted in $8 million in damages.
According to Walmart, more than $6 million worth of merchandise was destroyed.
According to the complaint, an investigation into the fire revealed a number of maintenance and installation issues.
Another fire occurred later in 2018, on the roof of another Walmart store in Yuba City, California, according to the complaint.
The fire allegedly took place after Tesla de-energized the roof. According to the filing, wires on the rooftop were still sparking when Walmart discovered the fire.
"Equally troubling, after Tesla technicians visited the rooftop, one of the technicians failed to close the cover to a combiner box, exposing this important piece of equipment to the elements and thereby creating a firehazard. Still more troubling, Walmart subsequently learned (independent of Tesla) that a potentially dangerous ground fault alert had occurred at the Yuba City site during the summer of 2018. Tesla either ignored the alert or deliberately failed to disclose it to Walmart," the complaint states.
"The issues that caused that ground fault alert likely caused or contributed to the subsequent fire in the fall of 2018, revealing Tesla's utter incompetence or callousness, or both," the complaint continues.
According to the complaint, Walmart's review of sites where the fires took place revealed "a troubling pattern of deficiencies, negligence, and failure to satisfy Prudent Industry Practices."
Walmart allegedly marked hotspots with tape, preventing sunlight from reaching the panel and exacerbating the problem.
Walmart claims that Tesla's inspectors failed to identify dangerous hotspots
"The prevalence of hotspots on the Tesla systems reflected a long-term pattern of negligence that had gone ignored for years and had not been addressed by proper maintenance procedures," the complaint states.
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