Wow, 2 hours and 12,000 gallons of water to extinguish Tesla EV fire!

nvabill

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ChasingCoral

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Knowledgeable fire professionals will tell you there is no real problem putting out EV battery fires, it just takes a lot of water. This is why they use dunk tanks in Europe.
 
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nvabill

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Knowledgeable fire professionals will tell you there is no real problem putting out EV battery fires, it just takes a lot of water. This is why they use dunk tanks in Europe.
Unless you don't have that much water available which sometimes can be the case in outlying or rural areas. But, on the good side you just total the car, get the insurance check and move on to another one. :cool:
 
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What does it take to put out a fully engulfed ICE vehicle?
 


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Unprepared? That part is clickbait and a year-old story. There has been a lot of work done to educate fire departments as the number of EVs rise.

The video does point out the European approach: dunk tanks. They ended the story with the simple approach: if there isn't enough water available: let it burn out. The car is already totaled any way you deal with it.
 

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Better than the ICE version where it will just burn all the fuel in a big burst of flames and then be done, just waiting for the plastics and stuff to burn
 

superdave80

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What does it take to put out a fully engulfed ICE vehicle?
The linked video gave an estimate of 500 gallons (single fire engine worth of water), compared to thousands of gallons for an EV.
If you aren't next to a fire hydrant or water source, most likely the fire department will have to just let the fire burn itself out. There is probably little point to even putting out the fire as the entire battery (and most likely the car itself) will be scrapped anyways. Why waste time and create contaminated water runoff? Oh, and even if extinguished, there is risk of the heat building up in the pack again and reigniting hours or days later anyways.
Some fire departments are looking at alternatives (lift car into container of water, place cover over entire vehicle are two that I saw). I wonder if someone will suggest/try liquid nitrogen spray to freeze the battery...
 
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nvabill

nvabill

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Better than the ICE version where it will just burn all the fuel in a big burst of flames and then be done, just waiting for the plastics and stuff to burn
Except many ICE fires are limited to the engine compartment, easily extinguished, and never get to the big burst of flames you refer too.
 
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nvabill

nvabill

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There is probably little point to even putting out the fire as the entire battery (and most likely the car itself) will be scrapped anyways. Why waste time and create contaminated water runoff?
One scenario I can think of is it is inside a parking garage or near other vehicles or property which if left to burn could cause much more damage or threat to human life. All car fires don’t happen on the open road or out in the open.
 

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Except many ICE fires are limited to the engine compartment, easily extinguished, and never get to the big burst of flames you refer too.
This ^^^

Many engine fires can be extinguished with a good industrial fire extinguisher. And when a hood is opened, the fire gets a nice hit of oxygen and goes crazy. That's why if they can get enough access to hit it with CO2, they often do that first while they're setting up the hose for the water attack.

Also, many quick response vehicles carry 500 gallons. They use it judiciously, waiting for the backup equipment to either bring more water or connect to a hydrant.

There's also a big difference in attack strategies depending on whether life and/or property is threatened. The engine compartment fire in a parking structure is treated much different than the one on the side of the road that was fully involved before they arrived.
 

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I wonder how much water it takes to extinguish a tanker fire. Something that the media doesn’t talk about are the crashes leaks and burning of tankers on the roadways. Not to mention collateral property damages. This particular incident was at a fuel terminal in DFW.

9060F011-BBCC-4740-90C6-0397E9671D40.jpeg
 

mikeinet

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there's a couple areas to consider:
a) Length and heat of burn -- if you just let it burn out, you need to think of how it could impact infrastructure.... melting roads, etc. (reference; https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/bridge-collapses-atlanta-freeway-fire-during-rush-hour-n740871)
b) ICE cars "start" as an engine compartment... but i've done plenty of fully involved fires. IMO, that only has to do with "how quickly you get there" or how quickly someone calls 911... it'll eventually become full car... though EV is likely to go full vehicle faster, as the battery runs the entire car length and can quickly spread that way
c) discussed this previously in other threads... traditional firefighting is "put the wet stuff on the red stuff" which is not necessarily the case with EVs... you need to be focusing on cooling the battery and stopping the thermal runaway... not putting out the fire you see

the amount of water is an issue... just as EVs have evolved the car industry... emergency services needs to evolve too.... EU is further ahead than Americas without a doubt
 
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nvabill

nvabill

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I wonder how much water it takes to extinguish a tanker fire. Something that the media doesn’t talk about are the crashes leaks and burning of tankers on the roadways. Not to mention collateral property damages. This particular incident was at a fuel terminal in DFW.

Ford Mustang Mach-E Wow, 2 hours and 12,000 gallons of water to extinguish Tesla EV fire! 9060F011-BBCC-4740-90C6-0397E9671D40
I think this stuff is usually covered most of the time when it occurs. If there is more attention payed to EV fires in my opinion it’s because this is a relatively new occurance in our society. Gasoline fires have been around a long long time. And I will add that whether the media covers it or not that doesn’t change what does and doesn’t happen.
 
 




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