Do Tesla Supercharger Fire Threats Extend Beyond Calaveras?

The Calaveras County Government Watchdog: A Citizen-Funded News Supplement - Investigation and reportage on allegations of conduct unbecoming of Calaveras County government officials.

Print publication - April 4, 2025: Arnold, (Calaveras County), California - The Calaveras County, California, communities of Arnold, Avery, Dorrington, and Murphys – along with many other wildland urban interface communities in the rural timber belt of the four-county, 27-million-acre, South Central Sierra Subregion, consisting of the counties of Amador, Calaveras, Mariposa, and Tuolumne (approximate combined population: 144,000) – are under an extraordinary and avoidable new threat of a catastrophic wildfire of manmade origin and negligence.

The Tesla Supercharger Electric Vehicle Charging Station (EVCS) in the Meadowmont Center (Arnold), which has been active since early 2024, is that avoidable catastrophic threat-in-waiting.

A potential firebomb was negligently sited in an extremely vulnerable location, in distressingly close proximity to densely forested neighborhoods, large capacity propane tanks, and unregulated traffic at the fringes of the 898,000-acre Stanislaus National Forest.

4.1 miles east, one of the most pristine and majestic groves of giant redwoods on Earth – Calaveras Big Trees State Park – is now in peril as a direct result of bureaucratic insolence.

As the overall operational safety of electric vehicles manufactured by multiple companies comes under scrutiny, and is increasingly challenged by a growing body of empirical evidence, Tesla grows prominent on that ignominious list.

Tesla vehicles are documented to have exhibited unpredictably dangerous runaway “self-driving feature” software issues. These “command center” issues have led to numerous collision reports – several of which notably have ignited high-intensity fires posing extreme risk of, or causing, casualties or deaths.

More recent concerns have the finger of “domestic terrorism” being pointed by the federal government – whether fact or fabrication – it is undeniable that the intensifying backlash confronting Tesla is a direct cause-and-effect relationship linked to perceptions and realities of Elon Musk’s conduct.

Musk’s political conduct birthed the now seemingly daily occurrences of vandalism of Tesla vehicles.

Of higher magnitude of concern – something all citizens of Calaveras County must become aware of – is that the randomness and geographic dispersion of these asymmetrical attacks against Tesla infrastructure – auto dealerships and Tesla-branded electric vehicle charging stations (EVCS) – display a distressingly common theme.

The attacks are getting closer to Calaveras County. 

Meyers, near Lake Tahoe in El Dorado County, has now been added to the list of Tesla attacks, with three acts of vandalism taking place between March 5 and March 13, 2025. 

Of late, the intensifying frequency of this asymmetrical activity added arson to its repertoire. 

An arson attack on the Tesla Supercharger Electric Vehicle Charging Station (EVCS) in the Meadowmont Center (Arnold) – or upon a Tesla vehicle charging at that facility – has the potential to unleash a wave of devastating impacts.

An incident of arson, or a vehicle charging system malfunction and battery thermal runaway occurring at the Tesla Supercharger Electric Vehicle Charging Station (EVCS) in the Meadowmont Center (Arnold) has the potential to trigger a cataclysmic impact upon the ecosystem and habitability of California’s South Central Sierra Subregion.

That impact may realistically be expected to encompass the staggering and irreplaceable loss of life and private property, and the devastation of endangered wildlife and our cherished wilderness.

The Calaveras County Director of the Office of Emergency Services (OES) claims that the Ebbetts Pass Fire District (located within 2 miles) and CAL FIRE (located within 0.5 miles) will promptly arrive on scene, and both agencies are capable of effectively responding to a potential fire at the Tesla Supercharger Electric Vehicle Charging Station (EVCS) in the Meadowmont Center (Arnold).

This work product is the result of extensive research beginning in July 2023. 

It was prompted by the unnerving threat posed to our region by the irrationally and irresponsibly sited Tesla Supercharger Electric Vehicle Charging Station (EVCS) in the Meadowmont Center (Arnold). 

The risk analysis presents a shameful indictment of the Calaveras County Board of Supervisors, the Meadowmont Center owners, the Calaveras County Building Department Director, a former Calaveras County Fire Marshall, and a former and the current director of the Calaveras County Office of Emergency Services.

Furthermore, two California State agencies and one County Agency have been advised in writing and/or in public forums of my concerns.

These agencies are Sierra Nevada Conservancy and CAL FIRE, as well as the Calaveras County Resource Conservation District, respectively.

The continued suppression of repeated credible warnings and the County’s failure to act on the potentially hazardous Tesla Supercharger Electric Vehicle Charging Station (EVCS) in the Meadowmont Center (Arnold) is inexcusable, and potentially criminally negligent, should a worst-case scenario unfold asymmetrically in our backyard precipitated by events rapidly occurring at the national and global scale.

Respectfully, the aforementioned government officials and business owners are urged to embrace this detailed fact pattern, and the statement of explicit concern and cautioning, with haste, as several government and agency officials will notice themselves mentioned prominently and unflatteringly.

The Calaveras County government is urged to ‘pull the plug’ on the Tesla Supercharger Electric Vehicle Charging Station (EVCS) in the Meadowmont Center (Arnold) today. 

Article and photos by 

Christopher Buttner

Publisher

Calaveras2026Election.com