ATLANTA — It takes truck hundreds extra water and hours extra time for firefighters to place out an electrical car fireplace than a fireplace in a standard car.
Solely about 1% of autos in Fulton County are electrical proper now. The remainder of metro Atlanta is even decrease. However that quantity is predicted to skyrocket with main automakers Ford, GM and Mercedes pledging to have 50% of their merchandise electrical by 2030 and eradicate all gas-powered autos by 2035.
Yearly within the U.S., between 150,000-200,000 autos catch fireplace. However an electrical car that caught fireplace on a California freeway began burning once more on the tow yard 5 days later.
One other EV caught fireplace on a tow truck, after firefighters thought the hearth was safely extinguished.
Two folks died when a Tesla crashed and caught fireplace simply outdoors of Houston in April.
Channel 2 investigative reporter Justin Grey traveled to Woodlands, Texas to study extra concerning the particular challenges that these EV fires convey.
Woodlands Hearth Chief Palmer Buck says every time his firefighters thought the hearth was out it began up once more.
“Since we’ve had automobiles, it’s fairly easy. However now we have now much more issues to consider,” Buck mentioned.
Woodlands firefighters had been on their cell telephones looking for Tesla knowledge as they fought the hearth.
They discovered what they wanted before everything was loads of water.
“We supply 500 to 1000 gallons of water on all of our fireplace engines. And normally that’s lots sufficient water to extinguish your typical inside combustion automotive fireplace,” Buck mentioned.
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However the place a traditional automotive fireplace takes about 500 gallons of water, basically 1 truckload, this fireplace took 28,000 gallons. That’s the equal of 56 fireplace vehicles.
On this case, there was a hydrant close by. However with out that, firefighters would have needed to shuttle in water.
“Because it ended up, we had been there for 4 hours placing water on the automotive and we proceed to have what’s referred to as thermal runaway with the battery packs,” Buck mentioned.
Thermal runaway is what occurs when completely different battery cells underneath the automotive maintain igniting.
That’s a fundamental distinction too. Water must get beneath the automotive the place the battery cells are positioned.
Firefighters within the Netherlands even tried utilizing a crane to dunk a BMW hybrid in a pool of water to cease the thermal runaway and put out the hearth.
Jason Levine from the Heart for Auto Security says proper now EV fires are only a fraction of fires, as a result of they’re only a fraction of automobiles on the street.
“They’re undoubtedly going to occur, we have to determine the right way to put them out,” Levine mentioned.
Out of greater than 10 million autos registered in Georgia, simply 31,000 are electrical. However that’s going to alter quickly over the following decade. And fireplace departments should be prepared.
“It is a drawback that’s solvable, we simply want to ensure we’re getting folks the correct data,” Levine mentioned.
In DeKalb County, they haven’t seen an EV fireplace but, however inform us they’ve been coaching for it.
“We all know that there’s going to be much more on the street, we attempt to do extra coaching, and attempt to keep updated on the best way these automobiles are constructed,” mentioned DeKalb County Hearth Division’s Tony Pardinas.
Hearth departments say the large concern going ahead is a possible pressure on assets. Fires that take 30 minutes to place out now take four hours, and require extra folks.
“Everyone’s trying in direction of the longer term as we get increasingly automobiles on the street which can be like this and what we have to do to be extra environment friendly,” Buck mentioned.
That’s the reason federal regulators on the Nationwide Transportation Security Board are taking this very critically. NTSB despatched their very own investigators to the Woodlands crash.
And earlier this yr, NTSB issued new suggestions for the right way to struggle these fires.
Proper now, the very best factor is massive quantities of water. However Chief Buck is hoping a foam or different compound might be developed that’s extra environment friendly than having to pour 20,000 gallons of water on a automotive fireplace.
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