Posted on 06/20/2021 5:47:37 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
28,000 gallons of water for a family home is one year is WAAAAAY TOO LOW. Needs another ZERO
Arizona Giant Bush fire was triggered by Toyota Prius batteries catching fire.
Very similar to what happens when a house with a solar array catches fire. The local FD has instructions to contain, let it burn, and protect adjacent structures. Do not enter and do not fight the fire.
Progress?
So as more electric vehicles show up in this college town and inevitably catch on fire, the locals will have to decide whether to make the next payment on the pensions or put out a car fire. And if a Tesla runs into the solar panel house across the street, I can expect the street to be blocked, lots of light from the fire, and many firemen standing around watching it all burn. What a country!
There’s a little known AI feature that causes the car to self-immolate once you are too far behind on your payments or if you badmouth Musk or Tesla on social media.
Unplugged Tesla Model S - spontaneously ignites while parked in San Fran garage.. Luckily, nobody was in the vehicle at the time..
Back in the day, my Dad said he saw some racing car fires they couldn't put out, so they just buried the burning wreck with a bulldozer.
Airport firefighters developed techniques to smother fires instead of drowning them with water.
Do Fire Stations need a foam truck now?
Whoa..😳
That’s 77 gallons a day. It sounds about right to me.
The technology is still a little crude. Fire needs three things - heat, fuel and oxygen. A rapidly discharging battery has an enormous number of amperes, which translate into heat. The components of the battery itself are, if heated to high enough temperature, combine enthusiastically with oxygen, which is in plentiful supply in earth’s atmosphere.
Flooding the site of the fire with carbon dioxide, would take away much of the heat and exclude the oxygen. But then, that would increase the overall carbon footprint, now wouldn’t it?
“28,000 gallons of water for a family home is one year is WAAAAAY TOO LOW. Needs another ZERO”
Teeny-tiny house with a composting toilet. It’s the new American McMansion.
Eight firefighters ultimately spent seven hours putting out the fire. They also used up 28,000 gallons of water
—
Sounds like fire departments will have to switch to using the find of extinguishing foam used at airports to smother the flames.
I would assume those 28,000 gallons of water would be considered hazardous waste. I would think EPA would also need to be involved for the clean up.
“Firefighters know that the battery of an electric car is impossible to extinguish and that it can only be cooled with large amounts of water. So the fire can possibly be limited to a few battery cells, and part of the battery will not burn out. Of course, such a partially burnt wreck must be stored in a water basin or a special container so that it cannot reignite.”
“A problem, however, is the extinguishing and cooling water that is produced when fighting such a fire and storing a burnt-out battery in a water basin. The analyses showed that the chemical contamination of the extinguishing water exceeds the Swiss threshold values for industrial wastewater by a factor of 70; the cooling water is even up to 100-times above threshold values. It is important that this highly contaminated water does not enter the sewage system without proper treatment.”
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200901112208.htm
So, toxic gases while burning, toxic water from dousing and immersing the remains (must immerse remains to prevent re-ignition), residues and remains are toxic...
Cheers to our electric car future.
They should make the EV monocoque frames out of magnesium. Go big or go home.
water on an electrical fire a big no no
I suspect moat fire depts have foam capability. The issue is do they have enough? We had a fire at a well location and we used every can of foam we had from five stations. That was an oil fire. Some engines have built in foam capacity. Others can use an eductor to suck foam out of a can into the water being flowed.
“Rechargeable batteries contain a lithium ion gel. The gel is sticky, and its heats to about 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit in a thermal runaway, so it results in immediate second-degree burns.
A lithium battery fire also releases an ether-based vapor that’s highly flammable. The chemical reaction of a thermal runaway can release hydrogen and oxygen byproducts, “So this process creates its own fuel, its own ignition and its own oxygen,”
Smothering foams and Halon only act to subdue the open flame and do not work to cool the runaway thermal reaction. FAA recommends combination of Halon with water to cool the reaction. For auto battery pack fires all of the component battery cells need to be cooled down.
Not clear on what happens with with all that water as the runaway thermal reaction of a cell is chiefly caused by a short circuit or high heat, or physical damage caused by accident impact. Seems to me that water would contribute to shorting the undamaged cells... damned if you do or damned if you don’t.
At the consumer device level one needs to check the device for high heat while charging, especially the cheap crap Wuhan mfr ones...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.