First Responders Unprepared for Electric Vehicle Fires: Report
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First Responders Unprepared for Electric Vehicle Fires: Report
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Re: First Responders Unprepared for Electric Vehicle Fires: Report
#2Quoting carbon monoxide as of it were a unique product of a battery fire immediately casts doubt as to any of this being a legitimate concern. Getting something so wrong ruins the credabity of the rest of the piece. (every fire involving carbon produces some CO especially when oxygen is limited and combustion becomes less and less complete)
Re: First Responders Unprepared for Electric Vehicle Fires: Report
#3Quoting carbon monoxide as of it were a unique product of a battery fire immediately casts doubt as to any of this being a legitimate concern. Getting something so wrong ruins the credabity of the rest of the piece. (every fire involving carbon produces some CO especially when oxygen is limited and combustion becomes less and less complete)
It's an article by a tort lawyer who is commenting on the lack of training. It is not a engineering analysis -- in context, it is clear that those chemicals were simply listed as examples.
Re: First Responders Unprepared for Electric Vehicle Fires: Report
#4> The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) recently issued a report showing that many fire departments lack the training and equipment needed to properly handle burning lithium-ion batteries.
That survey was published in 2018 ('recently'), so probably collected in 2017. My son is a volunteer firefighter and he reports that they have had no shortage of training on EVs. And that they don't do anything without proper PPE.
Re: First Responders Unprepared for Electric Vehicle Fires: Report
#5The issue of EV batteries reigniting after a crash seems very solvable...
For example, every battery cell could have a built in discharge circuit. Whenever the cell no longer received a signal from the cars computer indicating "the car is healthy" it goes into failsafe mode.
Failsafe mode consists of every cell discharging to zero volts through a PTC resistor to keep a constant temperature of 150 degrees C. That will discharge cells as quickly as possible while avoiding starting a fire.
If the vehicle cooling system is functioning, the whole battery will probably be discharged in 30 mins. If it is not, emergency crews can spray water on the battery and it'll be safe as soon as it's cool. Or they can not spray water and know that it'll stay at a constant (hot) temperature, but that thermal runaway isn't possible due to the PTC heating.
Re: First Responders Unprepared for Electric Vehicle Fires: Report
#6The issue of EV batteries reigniting after a crash seems very solvable... For example, every battery cell could have a built in discharge circuit. Whenever the cell no longer received a signal from the cars computer indicating "the car is healthy" it goes into failsafe mode. Failsafe mode consists of every cell discharging to zero volts through a PTC resistor to keep a constant temperature of 150 degrees C. That will…
You'll make a fortune if you can find a way to convert 40-150 KWhr of electrical energy to heat quickly enough to make a difference in an emergency situation without causing the car to combust (or explode).
You'll make a fortune because you'll have broken the laws of physics.
Re: First Responders Unprepared for Electric Vehicle Fires: Report
#7The issue of EV batteries reigniting after a crash seems very solvable... For example, every battery cell could have a built in discharge circuit. Whenever the cell no longer received a signal from the cars computer indicating "the car is healthy" it goes into failsafe mode. Failsafe mode consists of every cell discharging to zero volts through a PTC resistor to keep a constant temperature of 150 degrees C. That will…
You'll make a fortune if you can find a way to convert 40-150 KWhr of electrical energy to heat quickly enough to make a difference in an emergency situation without causing the car to combust (or explode). You'll make a fortune because you'll have broken the laws of physics.
A big firehouse is 184 Megawatts of cooling (assuming it is all vaporised). That will empty your battery in literally 2 seconds if you can direct it well enough... No breaking physics laws necessary.
Re: First Responders Unprepared for Electric Vehicle Fires: Report
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
You'll make a fortune if you can find a way to convert 40-150 KWhr of electrical energy to heat quickly enough to make a difference in an emergency situation without causing the car to combust (or explode). You'll make a fortune because you'll have broken the laws of physics.
A big firehouse is 184 Megawatts of cooling (assuming it is all vaporised). That will empty your battery in literally 2 seconds if you can direct it well enough... No breaking physics laws necessary.
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Re: First Responders Unprepared for Electric Vehicle Fires: Report
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
You'll make a fortune if you can find a way to convert 40-150 KWhr of electrical energy to heat quickly enough to make a difference in an emergency situation without causing the car to combust (or explode). You'll make a fortune because you'll have broken the laws of physics.
A big firehouse is 184 Megawatts of cooling (assuming it is all vaporised). That will empty your battery in literally 2 seconds if you can direct it well enough... No breaking physics laws necessary.
That's not a good way to prevent them from catching on fire, though. Discharging lithium batteries that quickly is almost a guaranteed way to set them on fire.
Re: First Responders Unprepared for Electric Vehicle Fires: Report
#10nice! hopefully a lot of people die because of our government.