I think the point is (I haven’t read the article) that once an EV is caught on fire, it’s extremely hard to extinguish it, because the battery tends to re-ignite afterwards.
I heard from a firefighter in my hometown (haven’t verified if true or not), the only way to extinguish it was to immerge the car.
But you are right, EVs are less likely to start burning in the first place compared to ICE cars.
Even immersing the car doesn’t really stop it, it kind of just pauses the fire. When it’s surfaced again and starts to dry it tends to self ignite again for a very long time. EV fires are extremely difficult to stop right now and the procedure usually boils down to “Let it burn itself out and keep everything around it from catching too.”
They put a blanket over burning car, and any occupants trapped inside because of doors that wouldn’t unlock and laminated side glass, to keep it from igniting things around it. They’ll also pull the burning car onto a flatbed truck to get it off the road, and take it to somewhere safer.
This is opposed to just dousing a gas car with water till it stops burning.
Aren’t EVs already safer than gas cars?
I think the point is (I haven’t read the article) that once an EV is caught on fire, it’s extremely hard to extinguish it, because the battery tends to re-ignite afterwards.
I heard from a firefighter in my hometown (haven’t verified if true or not), the only way to extinguish it was to immerge the car.
But you are right, EVs are less likely to start burning in the first place compared to ICE cars.
Even immersing the car doesn’t really stop it, it kind of just pauses the fire. When it’s surfaced again and starts to dry it tends to self ignite again for a very long time. EV fires are extremely difficult to stop right now and the procedure usually boils down to “Let it burn itself out and keep everything around it from catching too.”
Cover it in lead?
They could probably use sand
They put a blanket over burning car, and any occupants trapped inside because of doors that wouldn’t unlock and laminated side glass, to keep it from igniting things around it. They’ll also pull the burning car onto a flatbed truck to get it off the road, and take it to somewhere safer.
This is opposed to just dousing a gas car with water till it stops burning.
It’s a bit of an outdated way now. The newer way is to inject coolant directly into the batteries.