Florida family’s home destroyed and dog killed after Tesla exploded in garage: lawsuit

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A Florida family’s multimillion-dollar house was incinerated when their Tesla exploded in the garage after the electric vehicle’s battery system was exposed to saltwater during a hurricane, according to a federal lawsuit obtained by The Independent.

Tampa Bay auto dealer Michael Murphy was out of town when the Model S combusted, but his wife, young daughters, and in-laws were at the home – and were pulled to safety by rescuers, their complaint states.

However, it goes on, the fire reduced the entire 5,400-square-foot structure to ashes, “destroying, in a single moment, every piece of property the family had spent their lives accumulating.”

“Worse yet, the fire consumed the Murphy home so quickly that rescuers did not reach the family in time to save their dog, who tragically died in the fire,” according to the complaint.

The Murphys’ complaint, which was filed September 24 in Tampa federal court, contends Tesla had previously received “multiple warnings that its vehicles were prone to sudden and explosive fires when their batteries were exposed to water.”

Despite repeated warnings, Tesla “continued to market and sell the defective vehicles,” including the 2021 Model S Plaid that allegedly devastated the Murphys’ house.

In an email, attorney Samuel Heller, who is representing the Murphys, told The Independent that the experience “certainly has been tragic” for the family, but declined to comment further, citing active litigation.

A Tesla spokesperson did not respond Friday to a request for comment.

Michael and Sylvana Murphy raised their two daughters in a waterfront home on the western side of Tampa’s Interbay Peninsula, according to their complaint. The local Toyota dealership Murphy owns provided him a 2021 Tesla Model S Plaid for business and personal use, it explains.

Murphy kept the Tesla parked every night in the ground floor garage “beneath the home where his wife and daughters slept, trusting it as he would any other car he parked in his own garage,” the complaint goes on.

On September 26, 2024, Hurricane Helene struck Tampa Bay as a Category 4 hurricane, causing the worst storm surge the area had seen in more than 100 years.

When Helene made landfall, Murphy was in California on business and could not get home, as all air travel was shut down in advance of the storm, the complaint states. But, it says, Sylvana, the Murphys’ two daughters, and Sylvana’s parents were inside the house.

Because the Murphy home sat directly on the water, it was exposed to the full force of that surge, the complaint states. As saltwater entered the garage, the Tesla’s undercarriage was soon submerged, the complaint continues.

“Soon thereafter, [Sylvana] heard a loud explosion coming from the garage,” the complaint states.

She then went downstairs to find the Tesla in flames and fire spreading quickly throughout the garage, according to the complaint.

Within minutes, a fire ignited underneath the Tesla and completely consumed the garage, the complaint contends. Rising floodwaters cut off all access for emergency vehicles, leaving Sylvana and the others helpless inside the burning home with no avenue for escape and first responders unable to get through.

Thousands of miles away and powerless to do anything himself, Murphy contacted Grey Bull Rescue, a Tampa-based organization run by former military personnel that the family has long supported, the complaint states. Against the odds, the complaint says a Grey Bull team managed to reach the Murphy home by boat and spirited Sylvana and the others to safety.

“Without Grey Bull Rescue’s efforts, there would have been no way for the family to escape and they would have died in the fire,” the complaint asserts.

Still, it says, the fire eventually rampaged throughout the entire five-bed, six-bath residence, ruining, “in a single moment, every piece of property the family had spent their lives accumulating.” Even worse, the complaint states, the fire burned so hot, and spread so fast, that rescuers could not reach the family dog, who died in the blaze.

The explosion was caused by, according to the complaint, “the batteries themselves and the design of the battery pack,” and says Tesla “knew about this defect and concealed it from its customers.”

The company, which is owned by Elon Musk – the world’s richest person and a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump – has been aware of the issue since at least 2010, when it filed patents for fire retardant material meant to mitigate the tendency for lithium-ion batteries to enter so-called “thermal runaway,” an uncontrollable, self-heating chain reaction where a rise in temperature triggers chemical reactions that generate even more heat.

In 2022, U.S. Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) warned that lithium-ion batteries exposed to saltwater can set off thermal runaway, and wrote a letter to the Department of Transportation asking the agency to do something about it. He said electric vehicle fires have destroyed homes that would have otherwise survived hurricanes, and that area fire departments have been forced to steer much-needed resources away from other pressing issues in order to control the fires, which can take up to six hours to extinguish.

A Pinellas County home went up in flames, also during Hurricane Helene, when floodwaters engulfed a Tesla parked in the garage and reportedly burned the house down within 15 minutes.

Another Tampa home was burned to the ground in Helene, allegedly due to a Tesla catching fire in the garage after being exposed to saltwater.

The blazes are not limited to interactions with water. In 2024, former NFL player Randall Cobb’s home in Nashville, Tennessee, burned down when a defective Tesla charging cable caused an arc that caused some $4 million worth of damage.

Tesla’s advertising claims that electric vehicles catch fire less often than gas-powered ones. At the same time, lithium-ion battery fires burn hotter and are much more difficult to extinguish. In one astonishing example, a Tesla Cybertruck that rolled into a ditch burst into flames so intense, the driver's skeletal system literally disintegrated, according to a lawsuit later filed by his widow.

The Murphys’ complaint says Tesla “had access to safer battery protection for years, including its own patented intumescent fire retardant material, and did not use it.”

Even though Tesla knew of the dangers, it “told the public the opposite,” according to the complaint.

“It represented that its vehicles were safe, that its safety systems increased safety, and that it could prove a Tesla was safer to drive than any other electric vehicle on the market,” the complaint maintains. “Ultimately, Tesla had more than a decade to fix these known defects and chose, over and over, not to.”

The Murphys say Tesla was negligent in allowing vehicles with serious “design and manufacturing defects” to be sold. They are demanding a judgment for damages, punitive damages, and “any other relief deemed proper,” to be determined by a jury.