Earlier this month, California firefighters used a water-filled pit to douse stubborn flames in a Tesla’s battery compartment, highlighting the unique challenges of fighting electric vehicle fires.
As the number of electric cars on America’s roads has skyrocketed, firefighters have had to learn how to fight flames inside them that can take hours — and thousands of gallons of water — to extinguish.
Although they may require specific methods to combat them, early indications are that fires in battery-powered cars are no more common than their fossil-fueled cousins, but the US government is still collecting data.
US automaker GM on Thursday announced a new training initiative for emergency responders, and Tesla has released guidance on how to get a burning battery bank under control. But it’s still up to crews on the ground to fight these fires.
“We’re just sneaking into the future of firefighting,” said Capt. Parker Wilbourn, a spokesman for the Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District who attended to the burning Tesla.
“This is a new age fire and therefore we need to adapt and find solutions,” he added.
The main difference with electric vehicles is their power source and lithium ion batteries burn hot, fast and require large amounts of water to fully extinguish if they catch fire.
Tesla, which dominates the American electric vehicle market, says it takes 3,000 to 8,000 gallons (11,000 to 30,000 liters) of water to extinguish and cool a battery fire.
“Always set up or request an additional water supply early on,” recommends Elon Musk’s car company in its emergency guide.
Today, electric vehicles are a growing minority of the more than 275 million vehicles on the United States’ roads.
According to Cox Automotive, electric and hybrid vehicles accounted for nearly 10 percent of U.S. auto purchases last year.
In the case of the June 9 Tesla fire in California, the car was badly damaged in an accident about three weeks earlier and was parked in a junkyard waiting to be dismantled when it caught fire.
– Danger of “Thermal Runaway” –
Investigators were working to find out what caused the fire, which took about 4,500 gallons of water to put out, but said there was no evidence people started the blaze.
Batteries can reignite hours or even days after an initial incident, with Tesla recommending monitoring battery temperatures for at least 24 hours after a fire.
“It’s not necessarily that they’re more dangerous,” said Michael Gorin, program manager at the nonprofit National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), referring to electric cars.
“It’s just that it’s a new technology, a new set of dangers,” he added.
He noted that fires in electric cars don’t appear to be any more common or more dangerous than fossil-fuel vehicles, but the NHTSA says it doesn’t have enough data to draw any conclusions about the rate at which they catch fire .
However, lithium-ion batteries can be subject to what is known as “thermal runaway” – a menacing-sounding term that refers to an uncontrolled increase in temperature and pressure – in one cell, which can spread to another in one battery bank.
The NTSB warned of these and other battery-related risks in late 2020, recommending automakers follow a common template for their firefighting guides to help responders.
Fire crews around the world have had to learn the ins and outs of dealing with the most persistent electric vehicle battery fires, and over 250,000 responders across the United States have received training from the NFPA, the non-profit fire prevention organization.
“But I think there are 1.1 million firefighters in the United States today,” said Gorin, an NFPA program manager.
GM noted in announcing its new training initiative that an important part of driving the “mass adoption” of electric vehicles is “supporting those who play a critical role in the responsible use” of cars: firefighters.
Perception of the vehicles’ safety is key, especially after GM advised owners of some Chevrolet Bolt electric cars last year not to park them indoors or charge them unsupervised overnight before initiating a massive all-model-year recall.
Wilbourn, the California Fire Department Captain, said one way to ensure safety in the booming electric car market could be some sort of internal fire suppression capacity built into electric cars.
“Maybe one of these solutions will give that back to the manufacturer,” he said, noting that firefighting in homes and businesses is already a requirement.
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