Fort Wright Council hears concerns from Fire Chief about being prepared to fight electric car fires

Aug 9th, 2023

By Patricia A. Scheyer
NKyTribune reporter

Fort Wright Fire Chief Steve Schewe told council last week that his department is investigating different methods of extinguishing car fires now that electric cars are becoming more popular.

“With residential properties, we usually have the luxury of being close to fire hydrants, so we don’t run out of water,” said Chief Schewe. “With cars, they are usually out on the expressway or the highway, and we have to carry the water to the car. Generally it takes 8,000 to 10,000 gallons of water to put out an active car fire, and we only carry about 750 gallons of water.”

The difference with electric cars is that their batteries are encased in durable plastic, and it is very difficult to penetrate that box, so some fires can rekindle, Schewe said.

“Imagine being a tow truck driver, and you think the fire is out, so you take the car back to the yard, and some hours later, that car starts burning again,” he explained. “If someone isn’t around, that fire could spread to a building or to other cars around it. So it is important to have the water penetrate to the battery.”

He talked about the research he has done so far, saying in Europe people are experimenting with dumpster-like boxes where they can put the entire car inside with water, so they really can’t re-ignite.

“I also saw a technique where they cover the car with a retardant blanket, to prevent oxygen from getting in and triggering the fire,” he said. “There was another method with a penetrating nozzle that actually penetrates that box that houses the battery, and then water is poured into the container to saturate the battery.”

People ask Schewe all the time about foam instead of water for extinguishing electrical fires, but he said the typical foam that they have in their tool box has not proved effective against electrical car fires.

“It is kind of like when you have a house fire, and you pour water on the roof,” he explained. “Shingles are meant to repel the water so all the water would run off and none of it would get down into the house to put out the fire. That is what happens with the housing for the car battery. If you can’t get the water into the battery, it still has the potential to re-ignite.”

Schewe said they don’t have that many car fires in Fort Wright, maybe 6-to-10 a year, but with the increased governmental insistence for more and more electric cars, he feels that fire departments have to be prepared for whatever could happen with electric cars.

“When I looked it up on the internet, there are a lot of pictures with Teslas in them, but I don’t think car fires are special to Teslas,” he said. “There are a lot of hybrids out there, and you have to know what you are dealing with.”

Schewe said the internet is full of pictures and stories about Tesla’s catching fire long after they were wrecked, and re-igniting again and again in junkyards, but he said any other brand would be as problematic, it is just that Tesla probably has more vehicle out on the road than other companies.

“The big thing is getting to the battery itself,” Schewe said. “We just have to find out how best to extinguish the fire by saturating the battery, and that’s what we’re trying to find out.”

In the news from last weekend, a Tesla spontaneously burst into flames in Massachusetts, and it took 11,000 gallons of water to put the fire out. The fire chief in Wareham, Massachusetts, John Kelly, commented that “electric vehicle fires are difficult to fight, and present unique challenges.”

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Link to original article: https://nkytribune.com/2023/08/fort-wright-council-hears-concerns-from-fire-chief-about-being-prepared-to-fight-electric-car-fires/