Yes all the fire department is doing is keeping things outside of the car such as the asphalt road or trees or houses or guardrails or power lines from being damaged. Various car makers have weighed in and told fire departments to just keep dousing with water too limit surrounding damage. If the vehicle is close to something that could be damaged, they recommend to attempt to drag or push the vehicle to a safer area. I don’t know how they could get a chain on it. A front end loader could push it around pretty easily. That’s assuming you can get a front end loader readily available and have access to push from a direction that’s not boxed in.
The city fire department supposed to have tanks on the trucks similar to a Class D fire extinguisher for Lithium fire. The city saw an increase in electric cars being sold and knew there going to be issues. Plus idiots vaping, that shouldn’t be. I think the tanks has enough suppressing agents to put out 3 Lithium car fires. Then the tank needs a refill. Plus hand held extinguisher for the vapers.
The oxygen fed suits needed a part (forgot what it was) to safely put out Lithium fires.
Here, We have a problem with houses built on top of each other. If a fire start the house next door will catch on fire to. The fire department will have people extinguish the house fire, while the other hose down the surrounding. To prevent the fire from spreading.
The same principal as you mentioned. To eliminate the surrounding area from potential damage.
As far as I know. Here, there’s more Lithium fires from vapers than EVs.
Once I’ve seen how the firefighters used a forklift to dump a burning EV into a huge skip and filled this with water.
The bubbling and boiling arrangement was then transported away on a dump truck.
An inglorious ending to the silly idea of driving an upscaled RC on public roads.
All the engineering and science in combustion engines will be lost forever.
E-fuels would have been the solution,
but the lobbyists have achieved their goals, full bank accounts,
on the cost of the environment far away from our media consumption habits.
And then they are concussing everyone with blackout in winter.
So go on, charge as much what wires bring,
as much as gas- and coal-fired power stations can pollute,
but keep your conscience clean!
Who cares for a stupid blackout in winter. Let’s burn some plastic garbage to finalize winter at all.
They promised global warming, but winter is coming again.
LIARS!
Did not use enough electricity for charging cars!
Electrical fires are so much different than normal carbon based fires. You don’t use water to put them out. Some fire personnel are trained for that, but I suspect many are not.
Tesla broke the ice on EV cars. They really achieved something that no other car company had yet done. But… are they the best choice? I think not, for many reasons (and you can find that all over the Internet, people’s expert opinions on Tesla cars). What they did acheive was confidence for the major automakers, showing that it can be done and people would buy them. Now the big ones have entered the party.
The HUGE difference from the major auto makers and Tesla is experience. They know all about vehicle and powerplant safety concerns and the imperative to address them. Tesla probably didn’t anticipate enough for the kind of undercarriage damage that can occur and opted for a lighter kind of shielding that wasn’t enough in this case. Granted, it was probably a rare occurrence, something getting caught under the car in just the right way to catch fire and then set the vehicle on fire. But still… never skimp on safety when it comes to lithium cells!
In the future, we’ll have solid state lithium cells in production (successful prototypes have already been made) and they’re so tolerant of damage you can cut through them with a blade and they won’t explode. I don’t know if the nature of that chemistry is workable for cars yet, but hopefully in the future they will.
What really gets my gourd at this point is that EV is being so heavily promoted when, as others have stated, the entry cost is just too high. And really, if you’re charging from the grid and the grid uses fossil fuels… you’re just shifting the problem around! By this very problem, the only sensible approach right now (until the grid uses more environmentally friendly sources) is hybrids. They have the flexibility for multiple fuel sources, no painful limitations on range (you don’t have to waste 30 to 120 mins waiting for your car to recharge), plus the battery packs aren’t as huge as full EV… less costly, easier to maintain and refurbish. My next vehicle will be a hybrid.
A relative of mine lives in a condo community where the units are physically attached in 8~10 unit rows. And yeah, just recently one unit 2 rows over had a fire… and it spread, destroying the two units next to it, and ones further away suffered such bad smoke damage that they all had to be gutted. It’s really astounding how fire codes can be so lax with home construction.
Btw, hadn’t even thought about vaping… just imagining a vast majority of people buying these lithium cells and charging them without a care in the world, not even realizing that cheap vaping devices can have suspect battery management and recharging circuits/firmware. Plus, people having spare battery cells lying around… these folks aren’t flashlight or RC hobbyists that have learned a lot about managing dangerous lithium batteries!
Well they do not, they only have 20lb or smaller extinguishers, of several types.aside from several thousands gallons tank and a pump they hook up to a hydrant, they may as well have a D class extinguisher, but it wont do anything to a tesla battery, especially since it burns inside a metal box, with practically no way to get the solution inside the box. Pretty much the only team that can deal with such fire is airport fire dept, with their foam trucks. but no city FD has those. I'm a building engineer, our fire safety director is a former FDNY, and he drives a tesla, we had this conversation with him.
The "oxygen suite" is not really a suite, it is a SCBA, a tank with compressed air, and a mask. lasts about 30 min fully charged. i have one at home, keep it just in case, hope i never have to use it. the suite is made to protect from heat, and flames, not toxic gases
Today the dangers that come from the ground are only appreciated in military vehicles. In the good old days one could buy an oil pan guard, after some effort. Today they are in NL only available from custom shops who specialize in rally and off-road cars. One might say that the roads have become much cleaner and safer, but people and cars are less prepared for what happens if something does go wrong.
I know Tesla is constantly focussing on efficacy and efficiency, to save weight and cost. The new “battery holder” is going to be part of the body shell on the underside of the vehicle. Thus making it even more vulnerable to debris on the road. That’s not a good strategy to handle things like these, if you (would) ask me.
This was a problem the city was facing. The city didn’t know much about Lithium fires at that time. Until a vaper cause a fire that took to long to extinguish with just water. The city then realize they have to do research on Lithium fire. Especially when building are on top of each other.
I live in a small city. By building as much houses as they, can equal to more property tax. Today, due to codes. The houses has to built further apart from each other. By some people standard, It’s not far apart from each other.
Exactly. 
Years ago, The city’s fire chief that lives near me saw me outside and talked about these tanks, since he heard me talking about the tanks. It’s truck mounted but can be portable. When not in use it become a seat. There’s some short coming, Small length hose is the main. They also have the portable one for in house fire. It was new back then. I don’t know if they still in use today. I think someone mentioned, It’s cheaper with the portable tanks, than to refill the mounted tank.
I know about the suit you’re mentioning. It been awhile since I talk to my friend brother in law. I think he mentioned he uses a hazmat one piece suit over his fire fighter suit. I forgot, It been years since I spoke to him.
Can Tesla underlay the battery holder with light weight but durable material? Just a example, Something like Kevlar. It’s lighter than steel.
My thought exactly. A full-bottom skid plate would be helpful. But, Tesla thinks, how many of our cars will run over something that can puncture a cell? It would cut into the profit margin, too. So they don’t bother.
I wouldn’t mind a Mr. Fusion powering my SUV. Anybody remember “Back to the Future”? :sunglasses:
In this area, we have debris in the road all the time. It’s not hard to puncture the underlying if a Tesla.
I ran something over. It dented my floor pan. It was raining and visibility was a issue.
Garage seen damage Telsa batteries damage from hitting road debris, Customers wonder why their car doesn’t start.
i’ve seen trailer hitches in the road that have backed out of an unsecured receiver—they will do some damage to low ground clearance vehicles
Pa. roads are like a war zone normally.
Do not forget about rodents, they love wire insulation, it is like candy to them. there is a video on youtube how rodents got inside tesla battery.
Especially if you’re in a turn, and the front tire shoot the ball hitch right at the floor board. If it’s a Tesla, the ball hitch will be in the back seat.
I’m willing to bet this was an older Tesla Model S without the steel basement protection plate.
What about a proper fire suppression system built into these EV’s battery enclosures. Some racecars, I’ve seen it mostly in 200mph or higher dragsters, have had them for years. Yes it is used to put out a high octane or even nitro methane powered vehicles but, if the technology exist to put a highly advanced EV on the road then why can’t they make it safe from the fire even starting to begin with? Or at least the care be smart enough to sense when a fire has started and be able to put it out before millions of dollars worth of fire fighting equipment is called to the scene to put out a fire that they really can’t put out.
Damn things are too expensive as it is. Why not at least make them safe.
Technology to to a point where we got power steering, for easier and safer driving. We got anti lock brakes, for safer and quicker stopping. We got air bags that can inflate in fractions of a second to save our lives. Even the rubber tire has come such a long way in the last 60 years, keeping us safer on the road. Why in the hell are we risking our lives sitting on top of a battery with no way to stop it when it decides to go into runaway mode?
Just a thought, or two.