Mach-E caught fire in Gdańsk, Poland

[DevSecOps]

I’m not sure a fire generates its own Oxygen! Don’t think the science supports that theory.

When metal burns, which takes very high heat, it can separate the water applied to the fire into it's gasses (2000-3000 Celsius). This causes Hydrogen and Oxygen to fuel the fire. Hydrogen is extremely flammable while Oxygen is an accelerant. Foam can cause the same issue. I'm not saying that all vehicle fires reach those temps, but many EV fires do, and reach roughly 2700 Celsius. So while the fire doesn't generate it's own Oxygen, the application of water on a very hot metal fire can create additional Oxygen. Source: I was briefly a firefighter in my college days and we trained extensively on metal fires.

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[dtbaker61]

i'm not sure what @dtbaker61 saw specifically but this video describes the process that involves metal oxide combustion releasing oxygen gas (section around 5:10):

I didn't see it in this video, but in a autoweek article.... thanks for verifying. Which does point to the difficulty in putting out a battery fire once it gets going. Theinteresting option for modern fire departments might be the 'injector' from the underside of battery tray as mentioned : https://www.keloland.com/keloland-com-original/how-are-electric-vehicle-fires-put-out

I think if I worked in a fire dept, I look into that one!

and I sure would like to see @Ford Motor Company change the beauty cover design to give easy access to 12v and HV disconnect for responders BEFORE a fire gets started when responding to a crash and/or towing to a yard.

 

[dtbaker61]

When metal burns, which takes very high heat, it can separate the water applied to the fire into it's gasses. This causes Hydrogen and Oxygen to fuel the fire. Hydrogen is extremely flammable while Oxygen is an accelerant. Foam can cause the same issue. I'm not saying that all vehicle fires reach those temps, but some EV fires do and have. So while the fire doesn't generate it's own Oxygen, the application of water on a very hot metal fire can create additional Oxygen. Source: I was briefly a firefighter in my college days and we trained extensively on metal fires.

I was in a volunteer fire dept when I was 16-18, (small town requirement). No EVs then, but we had to be careful with the first 'hydraulic 5-mph bumpers' if there was an engine fire. The hydraulics could get hot enough to explode, and shoot bumpers off at about 200mph, We had a training video showing a bumper demoing a brick wall 20 feet in front of it!

There was also a training session on magnesium wheels.... we had a race track nearby, and a blowout on one car I remember sent the car spinning down the track on the rim, which ignited, and melted a hole in the asphalt.

 

[mikeinet]

Started googling around for something else and came across this... looks very similar to the OP and seems like this is what was used: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2021/1...ivers-water-directly-to-blazing-ev-batteries/

 

[Mirak]

Great. Now I’m not gonna be able to bring my Mach E on an airplane, am I?

 

[azerik]

Battery fires aren’t difficult to fight as far as technique is concerned. What’s required is large quantities of water. Like 12,000+ gallons. The average urban tanker truck can carry about 5,000 gallons, for reference. Many are smaller than that.

Or just let it burn if there is nothing nearby threatened by the fire. Once the battery starts burning, the car is a total loss.

This makes me think of all the times I was told "if there was any electrical fire, we total the car" wonder if that's the case for a situation like a small harness fire now days. It's possible the

 

[Teslaeata]

Great. Now I’m not gonna be able to bring my Mach E on an airplane, am I?

Nope!

 

[moparguy]

 

[Teslaeata]

It’s the park brake wiring harness