Free Republic

Imagine this disturbing scenario for a moment. You live in Florida and received plenty of dire warnings about the approach of Hurricane Idalia. But your house is a little way uphill and the storm surge wasn’t quite as bad as some had predicted. You manage to get by with only some minor flooding at your place and once they get the power back on you should be able to start cleaning up. But two days after the storm, you walk outside only to find your car going up in a massive fireball. Just what you needed, right? But what went...

The New York Fire Department recently reported that so far this year there have been 108 lithium-ion battery fires in New York City, which have injured 66 people and killed 13. According to FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh, “There is not a small amount of fire, it (the vehicle) literally explodes.” The resulting fire is “very difficult to extinguish and so it is particularly dangerous.” Last year there were more than 200 fires from batteries from e-bikes, EVs and other devices. A fire ignited at an e-bike shop and killed four people near midnight on the morning of June 20. Two...

Abstract The electric vehicle (EV) market, together with photovoltaic (PV) installations continues to develop at a pace. However, there are concerns that EV and PV installation fires may create more harmful substances than other types of fire. PV modules and car battery fires emit a range of carcinogenic and highly toxic compounds that are not yet fully understood and may pose a threat to firefighters’ health. This also raises the question of the impact on firefighters’ clothing and the safe handling and cleaning after such fires. This article presents a literature and standards review of the firefighters’ protective clothing maintenance...

On Saturday morning, during the heatwave that swept the East Coast, a new electrically powered public transportation bus caught on fire as it sat in the bus parking lot, according to fire officials. The Hamden Fire Department was dispatched to the CT Transit bus depot in order to extinguish the fire that had spread throughout the electric bus. According to the authorities, the lithium-ion battery was responsible for the fire that broke out on the electric bus. “Lithium-ion battery fires are difficult to extinguish due to the thermal chemical process that produces great heat and continually reignites,” the fire officials...