Fire Department procedures for EV Fire

[Homer J Simpson]

Interesting video on how Fire Department deals with an EV fire.

[watchmaker]

This is a major issue for our town in NH that is really pushing electric vehicles and solar. The FD is well trained and equipped for this, but houses with batteries are going to be a real challenge.  One of the issues is going to be who should pay for the training and response costs.  Kind of like should the whole town be taxed to pay for the installation of charging stations.  WE are currently looking at approving at a $15mil bond for a badly needed new fire/ems station.  EVs and the needed PPE and decontamination add significantly.  And this in a rural community of 7,000.

In communities with a bar bell distribution of wealth, this is not an abstract question.

I was at the home of a rep for Charge Point who had only IC vehicles in his garage.  When I asked him about this his response was "Have you ever seen an EV fire?"

[tom66]

A lot of home batteries are LFP due to their longer lifespan and tolerance of 100% SoC, which are much safer. 



I know I would be reluctant to install a normal lithium-ion (NCA, NMC) home battery.

For EVs: the big concern for fire departments will be how to learn about these fires, because they aren't common (both because they are infrequent in the population of EVs and also because EVs are rare.)  They may not get much experience on the techniques needed without extensive 3rd party training.

[dobsonr741]

For the interested ones, this is the excerpt from the fire department's youtube post: "the fire started in a 2019 Jaguar I-PACE that was charging when the fire occurred. A recall was issued for the I-PACE last year after a battery overheating issue caused fires."

So act on the recall, if your car have one.

[SiliconWizard]

Manufacturers should install fireworks in their batteries, so that when they catch fire, it gets all pretty.

[tom66]

For the interested ones, this is the excerpt from the fire department's youtube post: "the fire started in a 2019 Jaguar I-PACE that was charging when the fire occurred. A recall was issued for the I-PACE last year after a battery overheating issue caused fires."

So act on the recall, if your car have one.

Basically LG Chem doing their best to improve the reputation of EVs.  Their batteries have led to fire-recalls in:

Chevy Bolt
Jaguar i-Pace
Some VW ID series produced in North America
Hyundai Kona (worldwide)
Pacifica minivans (plug in hybrid models), may also affect the Jeep 4xe

LG Chem are also recalling some home battery units using defective cells (RESU10H systems.)

They went big too fast.  It seems the cells are failing for similar reasons to Note 8 cellphones: the batteries expand as they reach a higher state of charge, especially during the charge cycle, and this can occasionally cause internal cell shorts if the separator fails leading to thermal runaway of the pack.  It looks like they didn't do enough testing of the cells when built up into larger packs, or there is some quality control issue with the cells that isn't apparent until you get into the millions produced.

EVs using Panasonic, CATL, Samsung, BYD etc. cells appear to be recall free and do not experience spontaneous fires whilst charging.   It's going to cost LG billions to fix this.

[SiliconWizard]

Well, speaking of QC, just think of Boeing controlling their own batteries when they release commercial electric planes.

[themadhippy]

just think of Boeing controlling their own batteries when they release commercial electric planes.

Would you like   a smoking or non smoking seat?

[tom66]

just think of Boeing controlling their own batteries when they release commercial electric planes.

Would you like   a smoking or non smoking seat?

The good news is in the event of a fire, it's a trivial operation for the doors to be released to ventilate the cabin.