Why is this news? I'm not a big fan of Teslas, but gas-powered cars catch fire all the time, especially in the deserts of California and Arizona. People just think it never happens because it doesn't make national news.
EV fires are a PITA to put out, this one needed thousands of gallons of water.
You can't smother a lithium battery fire with anything, it will continue to burn even underwater. Your only option is to cool the battery to a point where its below the point of combustion. And that takes considerable time and a lot of water.
This is also happening to relatively new cars not some 30 year old piece of junk.
Yes. Water is also a very poor choice for gasoline fires.
At least the battery will mostly stay in one place, rather than floating off on the surface of the water, possibly setting things on fire at a considerable distance from the original source.
Understanding the impact of first responder infrastructure to me is one of the things that seems to get lost about increasing the amount of EVs on the roads.
Not sure it’s a tremendously great solution is to lay a blanket on a EV fire and have the fire department camp out to manage the situation for 12 hours waiting for the batteries to cool to the point where they don’t self combust again so the the vehicle to be safely moved.
Same. I actually own a Tesla but I wouldn't call myself a "fan" any more than the other cars I own. But I've been asked by strangers (and family) if I'm afraid my car will catch fire. Because of articles like this, a lot of people think that there are just Teslas combusting everywhere.
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[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 51.8 ms ] thread[1]: https://www.kttc.com/2022/09/01/iowa-firefighters-express-co...
You can't smother a lithium battery fire with anything, it will continue to burn even underwater. Your only option is to cool the battery to a point where its below the point of combustion. And that takes considerable time and a lot of water.
This is also happening to relatively new cars not some 30 year old piece of junk.
At least the battery will mostly stay in one place, rather than floating off on the surface of the water, possibly setting things on fire at a considerable distance from the original source.
https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA238154.pdf (pdf link)
says that lithium burning in air reaches a maximum temperature of about 1,000 C (about 1,800 F).
https://www.thoughtco.com/flame-temperatures-table-607307
says that various hydrocarbons (butane, candles, ethane, methane) produce pretty much the same temperature range when burned in air.
https://thehill.com/changing-america/enrichment/arts-culture...
Car sized fire blankets are the go - quick, simple, easy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yO8cVWOqZcg
How long does that persist for and how can that be worked into a response procedure?
(Don't stop at ankle deep trivial observations, solutions are required)
Not sure it’s a tremendously great solution is to lay a blanket on a EV fire and have the fire department camp out to manage the situation for 12 hours waiting for the batteries to cool to the point where they don’t self combust again so the the vehicle to be safely moved.
The site is a local NBC television station, the story was reported by their local news crew.