4 ms·

Have you found electric car fires as easy to put out as ICE car fires?

by tomcam 3y ago

martin_a 3y ago
See my answer on another comment: It's a question of the right strategy. But that strategy is being trained regularly, there are preparations in place and in case I would encounter an EV fire with my local department, we would have a through ready in about half an hour and could dump it in there. The discussion with EV fires now, we had 15 years ago with solar panels. People were panicking that firefighters would not be able to reach the burning roof under the solar panels, houses would burn down like nothing or that firefighters would die to electric shocks when taking care of those fires. Reality is that some regulation was put in place (roof-mounted solar systems need an emergency breaker in Germany) and people found that the solar panels were most likely already gone in fully developed fires or that they could be rather easy and safely be ripped from the roof, when necessary.
- prometheus76 3y ago
  But we are talking about a car on a boat. Will your fire department be able to put out a lithium fire on a boat?
  - Nathanba 3y ago
    also it's probably very hard to get to that individual car on the ship, unlike how it would be on a road
  - martin_a 3y ago
    I guess the ferry will have firefighters onboard. They should be trained on how to handle car fires in general. They will then need some equipment to get EVs out of their parking position (forklift maybe?!?) and have some container ready to drop them into. It's a problem that can be solved with the right equipment.
    - peteradio 3y ago
      Lol. I think you are overextending your hand here. You ever been on a ferry? You can't move the cars, they are completely packed like sardines.
      - martin_a 3y ago
        I know. And I think that tight packing is a problem. But it's also a problem with extinguishing "normal" car fires already, as fire can easily spread from one car to another, through heat radiation alone. The underlying problem should be fixed.
        tsimionescu 3y ago
        I would wager a guess that ICE cars are not transported with any gasoline in their tanks, unlike electric cars.
        AnimalMuppet 3y ago
        On a ferry? Of course they are transported with gasoline. The owners drive them on, then drive them off at the other side.
        RosanaAnaDana 3y ago
        itt: Tell me you've no clue how a ferry works without telling me you've no clue how a ferry works.
        krisoft 3y ago
        It seems you don't understand the concept of a ferry. It is like a bridge which moves with you. You drive on, the ferry departs and moves to some other location (other side of the river, other side of a lake) and you drive off. You can see the operation in this randomly selected video for example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkKTyf_RAzk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkKTyf_RAzk ) ICE cars have gasoline in their tanks, because that is what they use to drive on the ferry and that is how they drive off the ferry.
  - raverbashing 3y ago
    Will a fire department be able to put out a gasoline fire on a boat? A diesel fire on a boat? Chance are, electrical fires are much more self contained than gasoline fires
- dtech 3y ago
  The exact issue you describe was a problem in a recent urban fire in the Netherlands though [1], the fire could not be properly extinguished under the embedded solar panels in the roof and spread further than it would have otherwise. Having these corner case be an over-focus of an overall better technology is a bad human habit though [2] [1] https://www.rtlnieuws.nl/nieuws/nederland/artikel/5391449/zonnepanelen-arnhem-brand-indaksysteem-brandveiligheid https://www.rtlnieuws.nl/nieuws/nederland/artikel/5391449/zo... [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiYO1TObNz8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiYO1TObNz8
  - borski 3y ago
    > The panels in Arnhem were not placed on roof tiles, but directly on the roof. The roofs of the entire block of houses are connected by solar panels. This is not how normal solar panels are placed on roofs. In CA, for example, there are offset requirements where they have to be a certain distance from the edge of the roof, and on top of roof tiles/shingles. The only exception is uninhabited buildings, like a detached garage. Sounds like Norway needs to adjust its safety regulations.

Have you found electric car fires as easy to put out as ICE car fires?

by tomcam 3y ago

Have you found electric car fires as easy to put out as ICE car fires?

See my answer on another comment: It's a question of the right strategy. But that strategy is being trained regularly, there are preparations in place and in case I would encounter an EV fire with my local department, we would have a through ready in about half an hour and could dump it in there. The discussion with EV fires now, we had 15 years ago with solar panels. People were panicking that firefighters would not be able to reach the burning roof under the solar panels, houses would burn down like nothing or that firefighters would die to electric shocks when taking care of those fires. Reality is that some regulation was put in place (roof-mounted solar systems need an emergency breaker in Germany) and people found that the solar panels were most likely already gone in fully developed fires or that they could be rather easy and safely be ripped from the roof, when necessary.

prometheus76 3y ago
But we are talking about a car on a boat. Will your fire department be able to put out a lithium fire on a boat?
- Nathanba 3y ago
  also it's probably very hard to get to that individual car on the ship, unlike how it would be on a road
- martin_a 3y ago
  I guess the ferry will have firefighters onboard. They should be trained on how to handle car fires in general. They will then need some equipment to get EVs out of their parking position (forklift maybe?!?) and have some container ready to drop them into. It's a problem that can be solved with the right equipment.
  - peteradio 3y ago
    Lol. I think you are overextending your hand here. You ever been on a ferry? You can't move the cars, they are completely packed like sardines.
    - martin_a 3y ago
      I know. And I think that tight packing is a problem. But it's also a problem with extinguishing "normal" car fires already, as fire can easily spread from one car to another, through heat radiation alone. The underlying problem should be fixed.
      - tsimionescu 3y ago
        I would wager a guess that ICE cars are not transported with any gasoline in their tanks, unlike electric cars.
        AnimalMuppet 3y ago
        On a ferry? Of course they are transported with gasoline. The owners drive them on, then drive them off at the other side.
        RosanaAnaDana 3y ago
        itt: Tell me you've no clue how a ferry works without telling me you've no clue how a ferry works.
        krisoft 3y ago
        It seems you don't understand the concept of a ferry. It is like a bridge which moves with you. You drive on, the ferry departs and moves to some other location (other side of the river, other side of a lake) and you drive off. You can see the operation in this randomly selected video for example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkKTyf_RAzk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkKTyf_RAzk ) ICE cars have gasoline in their tanks, because that is what they use to drive on the ferry and that is how they drive off the ferry.
- raverbashing 3y ago
  Will a fire department be able to put out a gasoline fire on a boat? A diesel fire on a boat? Chance are, electrical fires are much more self contained than gasoline fires
dtech 3y ago
The exact issue you describe was a problem in a recent urban fire in the Netherlands though [1], the fire could not be properly extinguished under the embedded solar panels in the roof and spread further than it would have otherwise. Having these corner case be an over-focus of an overall better technology is a bad human habit though [2] [1] https://www.rtlnieuws.nl/nieuws/nederland/artikel/5391449/zonnepanelen-arnhem-brand-indaksysteem-brandveiligheid https://www.rtlnieuws.nl/nieuws/nederland/artikel/5391449/zo... [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiYO1TObNz8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiYO1TObNz8
- borski 3y ago
  > The panels in Arnhem were not placed on roof tiles, but directly on the roof. The roofs of the entire block of houses are connected by solar panels. This is not how normal solar panels are placed on roofs. In CA, for example, there are offset requirements where they have to be a certain distance from the edge of the roof, and on top of roof tiles/shingles. The only exception is uninhabited buildings, like a detached garage. Sounds like Norway needs to adjust its safety regulations.