(Council Bluffs) As more and more electric vehicles appear on the nation’s roadways, fire departments are undergoing training on how to deal with EV fires should one occur. There is no clear-cut data on whether electric vehicle fires are more dangerous than gas-powered car and truck fires; what is true is it takes an entirely different approach should one occur with a high-voltage powered EV.
Alex Ford, Council Bluffs Fire Marshall, says the passenger model EV fires are easy to extinguish. The high voltage battery vehicle fires are a different story.
Ford says this becomes an issue because the engines traditionally responding to these fires are limited to 750 gallons of water on board.
Ford says firefighters can put out a gas-powered vehicle fire with the water on board, and the same goes for an EV fire that does not include the high voltage battery.
According to Popular Science, QuantumScape in Silicon Valley is developing a solid-state electrolyte lithium battery. If the company pulls this off, it will revolutionize lithium batteries, rendering them safe as the AA batteries used in small electrical appliances.
Thursday Morning News
