> That's just a bad fire department. There are procedures to put out lithium-ion fires that aren't just "let it burn".
That's what they're supposed to do, though, according to Tesla[1]. The firefighters are there to pour water on the fire to cool it down and wait for the battery to burn and release its energy. This is what Tesla's manuals[1] say:
> If the high voltage battery becomes involved in fire or is bent, twisted, damaged, or breached in any way, or if you suspect that the battery is heating, use large amounts of water to cool the battery. DO NOT extinguish fire with a small amount of water. Always establish or request an additional water supply.
> Battery fires can take up to 24 hours to fully extinguish. Consider allowing the vehicle to burn while protecting exposures.
EV battery fires and their risk to firefighers are a national problem[2].
Also, you're expecting a lot from what are often volunteers who have little to no funding. I lived in a place where over $20 million was spent on police salaries each year, but firefighters and EMTs were all volunteers.
I'm one of those volunteer firefighters (Vacaville district). There's no way we would just walk away from a vehicle fire. If it means spraying water on it for hours, fine, then that's what we'll do. If there's no hydrant we'll have 2000-gallon water tenders lined up. On a big wildland fire it's not unusual for the pumpers to be working for hours.
You really underestimate how much firefighters love to use the equipment "for realz". I don't know anyone who doesn't dream of running into a (concrete) parking garage to put out a vehicle fire, EV or not.
Also, nobody (at least in my district) is allowed anywhere near a vehicle accident without bunker gear. If we had to rotate new pairs of firefighters in every 30m when the SCBAs run out, so be it. The department has a lot of tanks. We also have ventilation equipment on all the engines and squad units.
Also also: We're the rural team. The city departments (with their million dollar fire trucks) are even more hard core. "Make no attempt to put out EV fire" is just nonsense.
It can also be extremely dangerous to stay in a closed space i.e. underground parking if you don't have a way to turn off the fire. Most people don't die of fire in fires, they die of less than a minute of breathing in toxic fumes. To tell a volunteer to risk his life to watch a fire burn he can't turn off is a very privileged position to be in.
Firefighters tend to have respirators when they fight fires. It's not like things other than EVs don't release copious amounts of toxic fumes when they burn. ICEs are really not much better in that regard.
The difference is not the toxicity of the fumes, it’s the duration of the fire. A respirator will not fully protect you from a seven hour underground fire.
In an EV fire, you have an initial fire that burns hot and releases lots of fumes (a large part from all the other crap in the car combusting), and then you have a very long period where you have to dump water on the battery to keep the internal oxidation under control by cooling it. The later part is much less dangerous for the fire fighters.
This actually reinforces my point. The first part releases “lots of fumes” into a poorly ventilated underground space, which then requires firefighters to remain for “a very long period.” Your claim that the later part is less dangerous assumes that fumes have dissipated.
> That's what they're supposed to do, though, according to Tesla[1]. The firefighters are there to pour water on the fire to cool it down and wait for the battery to burn and release its energy. This is what Tesla's manuals[1] say:
No that's not what they say. They say to keep it cool to prevent it from burning. You're misinterpreting those instructions.
That's what they're supposed to do, though, according to Tesla[1]. The firefighters are there to pour water on the fire to cool it down and wait for the battery to burn and release its energy. This is what Tesla's manuals[1] say:
> If the high voltage battery becomes involved in fire or is bent, twisted, damaged, or breached in any way, or if you suspect that the battery is heating, use large amounts of water to cool the battery. DO NOT extinguish fire with a small amount of water. Always establish or request an additional water supply.
> Battery fires can take up to 24 hours to fully extinguish. Consider allowing the vehicle to burn while protecting exposures.
EV battery fires and their risk to firefighers are a national problem[2].
Also, you're expecting a lot from what are often volunteers who have little to no funding. I lived in a place where over $20 million was spent on police salaries each year, but firefighters and EMTs were all volunteers.
[1] https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/20805805-2014_model_...
[2] https://www.nbcnews.com/business/autos/federal-regulators-wa...