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Re: Lithium-ion battery fires from electric cars, bikes and scooters are on the rise. Are firefighters ready?
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Wayne
Feb 17, 2024, 3:31:43 PM2/17/24
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On 13 Sep 2023, bruce bowser <bruce1....@gmail.com> posted some
news:b8784ce8-7c68-467d...@googlegroups.com:
> I'm a moron because I didn't factor the much higher prevalence
> of ICE versus BEV vehicles.
The rechargeable batteries that power common items like e-bikes,
scooters and electric cars can pose a dangerous new threat to
firefighters. They burn hotter and longer — and many fire departments
may be unprepared to tackle them.
In June, four people were killed and two others seriously injured after
a lithium-ion battery malfunctioned and sparked a fire in a first-floor
e-bike shop in New York. Fire officials say the blaze quickly spread to
apartments above the shop.
It's not an isolated incident. Fires caused by rechargeable batteries,
including lithium-ion batteries, have been increasing steadily in large
cities like New York and San Francisco. Since at least 2019, fire
departments in the two cities say they've responded to at least 669
incidents combined.
Last year, there were more than 200 fires blamed on lithium-ion
batteries in New York City. Since 2019 the city recorded 326 injuries
related to these types of fires, while San Francisco recorded 7 in the
same time period.
These fires can also cause significant property damage. In 2022, most of
New York's rechargeable battery-related fires caused structural damage.
In San Francisco, about a third caused structural damage.
Experts say much of the problem stems from unregulated aftermarket
chargers that are not required to be certified. In some cases, products
left plugged in have overcharged causing batteries to malfunction,
overheat and combust.
In response to the deadly fire started in an e-bike store in New York,
the New York city council passed several bills to strengthen fire
safety. The bills would restrict the sale, lease or rental of powered
mobility devices and storage batteries that fail to meet safety
standards set by Underwriters Laboratories.
Nationally, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand introduced the Setting Consumer
Standards for Lithium-Ion Batteries Act, which would set standards for
rechargeable lithium-ion batteries and set nationwide consumer
guidelines to protect people and responders from fires caused by the
batteries.
Lithium-ion battery fires caused at least 20 deaths and more than 300
injuries in New York City and San Francisco since 2019 Injuries and
deaths from lithium-ion battery fires are trending higher. San Francisco
20192020202120222023
Fires
24
36
35
58
21
Injuries
0
4
1
2
0
Deaths
0
0
0
1
0
New York City
20192020202120222023
Fires
30
44
104
220
97
Injuries
13
23
79
147
64
Deaths
0
0
4
6
9
Chart: Dilcia Mercedes, CBS News Source: New York City and San
Francisco Fire Departments Lithium-ion battery packs are made up of a
group of cells inside a battery compartment and contain a flammable
liquid electrolyte. The more electricity needed, the higher the number
of cells — EV and plug-in hybrid vehicles, for example, have about 1,000
times more cells than an e-bike.
With an increased number of cells and higher energy batteries comes a
greater risk during failure.
Lacking data
Specific numbers on EV fires are challenging to pin down. The National
Fire Incident Reporting System, or NFIRS, used by fire departments,
hasn't historically separated gasoline car fires from those involving
electrified vehicles. Right now, EV fires are still considered rare
events, since they only make up about 1-2% of vehicles on the road.
Experts warn those numbers will likely increase as more lithium-ion
powered vehicles hit the road. Last year nearly three and a half million
electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles were registered in the U.S. —
that's about six times more than in 2016.
The U.S. Fire Administration, which is involved in training, research
and data, is leading an effort to develop and launch a new data platform
called National Emergency Response Information System, or NERIS. U.S.
Fire Administrator Dr. Lori Moore-Merrell said the new system will
collect data in real time to help increase understanding of these fires.
"We need these lessons. We need the evidence back to the data. We need
the data to inform policy, to inform regulation," she said. The NERIS
system will be operational in 2024.
A bar chart with counts of yearly registrations of Electric and Plug-in
Hybrid vehicles. Last year, more than three million vehicles were
registered. Last year, Americans registered more than 3 million electric
and plug-in hybrid vehicles While still a fraction of the more than 200
million gasoline vehicles registered every year, EVs are increasingly
commonplace on the road. 1M
2M
3M
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
534.3K721.7K1M1.3M1.6M2.2M3.5M
Chart: Scott Pham, CBS NewsSource: Alternative Fuels Data Center, US
Department of Energy Unpredictable combustion
Part of the challenge for firefighters is that these batteries can be
unpredictable. If there is a charging failure, a puncture or an impact
from a crash, the batteries can ignite and lead to a phenomenon known as
"thermal runaway."
"It's a chemical reaction where the heat from one cell of the battery
ignites the next cell," said Andrew Klock, senior manager of training
and education at the National Fire Protection Association. "If you
think about it, it's like a bunch of matchsticks and if you light one
and they're all touching each other, the next one will ignite."
In 2017, a 2016 Tesla model X SUV crashed into an open garage and
ignited in Orange County, California. It took two hours for firefighters
to extinguish the structural fire. But after they pulled the SUV out
into the driveway, the battery reignited, then stabilized for about 45
minutes before it reignited again. Two hours later, after it was loaded
onto a tow truck, it began smoking and reignited a third time. It took
nearly five hours to completely extinguish the EV fire.
According to Tesla's emergency response guide for the Model X: "Battery
fires can take up to 24 hours to fully cool. … There must be no fire,
smoke, audible popping/hissing, or heating present in the high voltage
battery for at least 45 minutes before the vehicle can be released to
second responders (such as law enforcement, vehicle transporters,
etc.)." It goes on to say, "Always advise second responders that there
is a risk of battery re-ignition."
In a 2018 incident in Mountain View, California, authorities say a Tesla
crash resulted in the vehicle's battery going into thermal runaway. It
reignited five days after it was thought to have been under control,
injuring two firefighters and a tow truck driver. A week after the
incident, Tesla posted on its blog that "Tesla battery packs are
designed so that in the rare circumstance a fire occurs, it spreads
slowly so that occupants have plenty of time to get out of the car."
Explosion hazard
Another danger to first responders comes when thermal runaway doesn't
result in fire but instead causes a phenomenon known as "off-gassing."
"When you have a thermal runaway in a battery, it gets extremely hot. It
breaks down the chemicals inside and can make flammable gases," said
Adam Barowy, a research engineer at the UL Fire Safety Research
Institute. "If that gas doesn't ignite, as soon as it comes out of the
battery, it can build up and start to develop an explosion hazard."
That happened in Erie, Colorado, in April. Mountain View Fire Rescue
crews responding to reports of a fire at a home found smoke in the
secondary garage. It was emanating from a Jeep Wrangler 4XE hybrid
vehicle.
"They didn't see any flames. The problem with this was a buildup of
combustible gases inside the garage and started coming into the house,"
said Doug Saba, deputy fire marshal for Mountain View Fire Rescue. "That
happens a lot with batteries, lithium-ion batteries that fail. And they
fail because there's either a manufacturer defect or something damages
those batteries causing that. It could be an electrical short."
When they put water on it, an explosion blew the garage door off its
tracks 30 feet into the yard. Police body camera video shows the door
just missing the battalion chief's head as he stood outside.
"Luckily, he had his protective gear on, and the garage door actually
nicked his helmet," said Saba.
Three firefighters inside the garage were knocked off their feet; none
was seriously injured.
"So, there's kind of a two-pronged hazard. There's fire hazard, which
can be sort of rapidly developing in the case of e-bikes. And there's
this potential for an explosion hazard," said Barowy.
"Every three minutes there's a gasoline engine car fire, you don't hear
about those on the news. But if an electric vehicle catches fire today,
just one or two in this country, you'll hear about it on the news," said
Klock. "So, they're not more dangerous than gasoline cars. They're just
different. And if you're trained properly, you know you're going to be
able to handle that much better."
In an email to CBS News, a spokesperson for Jeep's parent company,
Stellantis, said the company "prioritizes the safety and well-being of
our customers and routinely reports relevant data to regulators and
other servants of the public interest."
"We also provide the first-responder community with detailed information
about handling our portfolio of electrified products," the spokesperson
said. "Stellantis vehicles are designed and built to meet or exceed all
applicable Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards."
Fragmented fire preparedness
Research and data about fire preparedness when it comes to lithium-ion
batteries is just beginning to be collected. CBS News surveyed two dozen
of the 50 largest fire departments nationwide on the topic and found
only about 38% have had hands-on training to fight lithium-ion battery
fires.
One survey respondent wrote:
"I don't believe we can say we have all that we need to support these
incidents. Most of the equipment used for these incidents is not fully
vetted and we are still working to identify the best options. Standard
operating procedures need to be vetted and finalized and these
procedures need to have consistencies that are shared between fire
agencies."
Another survey respondent wrote:
"This is an ever-evolving topic and as new technology comes out, we need
to continue to stay up on current trends, this is a work in progress.
"The prevalence and occurrence of hybrid/electric car and lithium-ion
battery fires is increasing. … Lithium-ion battery fires present a
severe hazard to the public and to our responders and we want to ensure
that our personnel are prepared to mitigate these incidents."
"I would hope that approximately half of the firefighters in this
country have had some exposure to training. But I would also expect that
maybe half have not. There are approximately 1.2 million firefighters in
the United States. So, there are many that need training," said Andrew
Klock of the NFPA.
CBS News' survey also points to a lack of consensus on the best way to
fight these fires — and there's no specific agency leading the charge to
identify best practices and required training.
"As compared to Europe, for example, the United States is very
fragmented in our approach," said Thomas Barth, investigator and
biomechanics engineer at the National Transportation Safety Board.
In 2020 the NTSB released a report on the safety risks to emergency
responders from lithium-ion battery fires and electric vehicles. At the
time they made recommendations for fire response and more research into
the stranded energy in these batteries that can lead to thermal runaway.
"As the deployment of this technology out to wider reaches of the field
across the United States, there's still more education and still more
work to do," said Barth.
Moore-Merrell agrees that emerging technology and innovation have been
outpacing the ability of safety organizations and regulatory agencies to
keep up.
While she says regulation is needed, she also believes more research
must first be done.
"I think we need to understand and have more information, more data.
Certainly, more outcome research on the incidents that do occur before
we can inform policy and regulation," she said. "Right now, we're not
even sure what to regulate because we don't know enough about the
incidents that are happening."
Filling the gap in training
Even though data is just being collected and research is ongoing, there
is a lot of training available — everything from online modules to
classroom education and practical field training is being offered by
numerous government and private agencies.
"This is an opportunity for automakers and General Motors certainly to
go out and demonstrate to the world and the communities around the world
our commitment to putting safe product out there," said Joe McLaine,
staff engineer with General Motors Global Product Safety and Systems
Division.
Over the past year, McLaine says GM has conducted hands-on EV emergency
response training in more than 25 different locations, reaching over
5,000 first and second responders.
"We gave the training in four-hour sessions, and we had them take a
training assessment. And when they did that assessment, they got a
certificate of completion," said McLaine.
Chris Soda, a veteran firefighter with the Chicago Fire Department,
started his own company to offer training. Junk Yard Dog Extrication
Training offers classes and hands-on training to fire departments,
police departments and towing companies to deal with battery fires.
"The tactics that we're using for internal combustion engine vehicles
don't really apply to the batteries these electric vehicles were
extinguishing," said Soda. "We don't have the science behind it to tell
us exactly what's going on and the best way to combat these fires. It's
kind of a patchwork of ideas of kind of what works best."
Last month Soda and his team held a training day in Camden, Michigan,
with about 83 firefighters from multiple departments in attendance.
Izzy Maguffee, a firefighter and EMT from neighboring Byron Township,
Michigan, took part in the training. She says that while she was given
cursory instruction on lithium-ion battery responses as a cadet, this
was the first time she had ever received hands-on training.
"A lot of what they're teaching is just basically knowledge on the
different battery positions — for us to be able to put it out. Where to
apply water, and just the best way for us to put them out since they're
such a different kind of animal than our normal fires are," she said.
Along with classroom activity, the group learned three different methods
for tilting vehicles to gain access to the battery for monitoring and
cooling as well as new extrication methods.
"There's no silver bullet to this. And there's not one fix for every
single electric vehicle incident. So, we're trying to give them a big
toolbox so that they can rely on that, and they can sometimes mix and
match techniques," said Soda.
The course also covers rapid extrication techniques for electric
vehicles focusing on the potential mechanical damage that batteries can
sustain after a collision and how to rapidly extricate entrapped
victims.
An app for that
One recommendation the NTSB makes is for all car manufacturers to
standardize their emergency response guides, known as ERGs, for first
responders. Because all alternative fuel vehicles are not the same, the
batteries can be in different places.
"We made a recommendation to every one of them to model their emergency
response guide on the ISO [International Organization for
Standardization] standard," said Thomas Barth of the NTSB. "It doesn't
dictate the content of the information. But it has these standardized
formats and colors and layout so that emergency responders, [if] they
have fire, they know right where to go."
Firefighters rely on these manuals from each individual manufacturer to
figure out what to do when they respond to an electric vehicle fire.
There are currently about 300 separate emergency response guides.
The NFPA maintains a collection of these guides on its website.
Pocket-sized books are also available.
"There's no centralized distribution of those response guides, whereas
in Europe it's a government requirement that they have a phone app.
Whereas in the United States that doesn't exist. It's more of an ad hoc
collection," said Barth.
It's why Phil Scarfi, a New York City firefighter, and his colleague
Scott Saal, who has nearly 40 years of experience in the automotive
collision industry, decided there should be an app for that here in the
U.S.
"It's called the Electric Vehicle Rescue app and it has all of the
emergency rescue guides, the ERGs, all in one place," said Saal.
Scarfi says that he found first responders were having trouble figuring
out where the battery on individual makes and models of electric and
hybrid vehicles were located — important details when every second
counts.
"They were popping up in all different locations, not the traditional
under the front hood. Sometimes they were in the rear, under the
passenger seat, all over the place. So it was taking a lot of first
responders a little bit of time to figure out where those battery
locations were. So that was the main basis of the app — provide an
application where people can reference those battery locations," said
Scarfi.
So far the app has been downloaded more than 65,000 times and is being
used in nearly every state in the U.S. and in Canada. Through their
nonprofit, Scarfi and Saal work with the manufacturers to ensure the
latest ERGs are pushed to the app to create an easily accessible and
updated source of information for first responders.
"It's critical that we provide all this information, as much information
as possible, so that we are both protecting the safety of first
responders but also the occupants of these vehicles while first
responders are working around them," said Scarfi.
GM is also working on a new concept app for ERGs. This app would give
first responders a 3D schematic of the vehicle before they arrive on
scene.
"A push of information — 3D rendering of the vehicle with overlays of
that vehicle to show the structure of the high strength steel where the
airbags or the supplemental restraints are, where the low voltage or
high voltage cut points may be in that vehicle, as well as overlaid
information from OnStar or other telematics information that could be
pushed directly to first responders," said McLaine. "We want to see this
be mandated."
Tesla, one of the auto manufacturers that use lithium-ion batteries, did
not respond to requests for comment for this story, but one survey
respondent said that the company had provided some training to their
department.
When asked about EV battery fires, Ford wrote in a statement: "We have a
long history of working closely with emergency workers and first
responders on auto safety issues and that continues as we enter the EV
era. We're further evaluating opportunities to help educate on this
important topic. Emergency response guides (which follow NTSB's
recommendation to utilize the ISO format) are available for all our Ford
electric vehicles."
In the meantime, firefighters like Chris Soda say they can't wait for
all the research and best practices to be established.
"The cars are out here today, and we don't have time to wait on that
technology to kind of catch up to ensure that we can operate safely."
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/lithium-ion-battery-fires-electric-cars-bike
s-scooters-firefighters/
news:b8784ce8-7c68-467d...@googlegroups.com:
> I'm a moron because I didn't factor the much higher prevalence
> of ICE versus BEV vehicles.
The rechargeable batteries that power common items like e-bikes,
scooters and electric cars can pose a dangerous new threat to
firefighters. They burn hotter and longer — and many fire departments
may be unprepared to tackle them.
In June, four people were killed and two others seriously injured after
a lithium-ion battery malfunctioned and sparked a fire in a first-floor
e-bike shop in New York. Fire officials say the blaze quickly spread to
apartments above the shop.
It's not an isolated incident. Fires caused by rechargeable batteries,
including lithium-ion batteries, have been increasing steadily in large
cities like New York and San Francisco. Since at least 2019, fire
departments in the two cities say they've responded to at least 669
incidents combined.
Last year, there were more than 200 fires blamed on lithium-ion
batteries in New York City. Since 2019 the city recorded 326 injuries
related to these types of fires, while San Francisco recorded 7 in the
same time period.
These fires can also cause significant property damage. In 2022, most of
New York's rechargeable battery-related fires caused structural damage.
In San Francisco, about a third caused structural damage.
Experts say much of the problem stems from unregulated aftermarket
chargers that are not required to be certified. In some cases, products
left plugged in have overcharged causing batteries to malfunction,
overheat and combust.
In response to the deadly fire started in an e-bike store in New York,
the New York city council passed several bills to strengthen fire
safety. The bills would restrict the sale, lease or rental of powered
mobility devices and storage batteries that fail to meet safety
standards set by Underwriters Laboratories.
Nationally, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand introduced the Setting Consumer
Standards for Lithium-Ion Batteries Act, which would set standards for
rechargeable lithium-ion batteries and set nationwide consumer
guidelines to protect people and responders from fires caused by the
batteries.
Lithium-ion battery fires caused at least 20 deaths and more than 300
injuries in New York City and San Francisco since 2019 Injuries and
deaths from lithium-ion battery fires are trending higher. San Francisco
20192020202120222023
Fires
24
36
35
58
21
Injuries
0
4
1
2
0
Deaths
0
0
0
1
0
New York City
20192020202120222023
Fires
30
44
104
220
97
Injuries
13
23
79
147
64
Deaths
0
0
4
6
9
Chart: Dilcia Mercedes, CBS News Source: New York City and San
Francisco Fire Departments Lithium-ion battery packs are made up of a
group of cells inside a battery compartment and contain a flammable
liquid electrolyte. The more electricity needed, the higher the number
of cells — EV and plug-in hybrid vehicles, for example, have about 1,000
times more cells than an e-bike.
With an increased number of cells and higher energy batteries comes a
greater risk during failure.
Lacking data
Specific numbers on EV fires are challenging to pin down. The National
Fire Incident Reporting System, or NFIRS, used by fire departments,
hasn't historically separated gasoline car fires from those involving
electrified vehicles. Right now, EV fires are still considered rare
events, since they only make up about 1-2% of vehicles on the road.
Experts warn those numbers will likely increase as more lithium-ion
powered vehicles hit the road. Last year nearly three and a half million
electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles were registered in the U.S. —
that's about six times more than in 2016.
The U.S. Fire Administration, which is involved in training, research
and data, is leading an effort to develop and launch a new data platform
called National Emergency Response Information System, or NERIS. U.S.
Fire Administrator Dr. Lori Moore-Merrell said the new system will
collect data in real time to help increase understanding of these fires.
"We need these lessons. We need the evidence back to the data. We need
the data to inform policy, to inform regulation," she said. The NERIS
system will be operational in 2024.
A bar chart with counts of yearly registrations of Electric and Plug-in
Hybrid vehicles. Last year, more than three million vehicles were
registered. Last year, Americans registered more than 3 million electric
and plug-in hybrid vehicles While still a fraction of the more than 200
million gasoline vehicles registered every year, EVs are increasingly
commonplace on the road. 1M
2M
3M
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
534.3K721.7K1M1.3M1.6M2.2M3.5M
Chart: Scott Pham, CBS NewsSource: Alternative Fuels Data Center, US
Department of Energy Unpredictable combustion
Part of the challenge for firefighters is that these batteries can be
unpredictable. If there is a charging failure, a puncture or an impact
from a crash, the batteries can ignite and lead to a phenomenon known as
"thermal runaway."
"It's a chemical reaction where the heat from one cell of the battery
ignites the next cell," said Andrew Klock, senior manager of training
and education at the National Fire Protection Association. "If you
think about it, it's like a bunch of matchsticks and if you light one
and they're all touching each other, the next one will ignite."
In 2017, a 2016 Tesla model X SUV crashed into an open garage and
ignited in Orange County, California. It took two hours for firefighters
to extinguish the structural fire. But after they pulled the SUV out
into the driveway, the battery reignited, then stabilized for about 45
minutes before it reignited again. Two hours later, after it was loaded
onto a tow truck, it began smoking and reignited a third time. It took
nearly five hours to completely extinguish the EV fire.
According to Tesla's emergency response guide for the Model X: "Battery
fires can take up to 24 hours to fully cool. … There must be no fire,
smoke, audible popping/hissing, or heating present in the high voltage
battery for at least 45 minutes before the vehicle can be released to
second responders (such as law enforcement, vehicle transporters,
etc.)." It goes on to say, "Always advise second responders that there
is a risk of battery re-ignition."
In a 2018 incident in Mountain View, California, authorities say a Tesla
crash resulted in the vehicle's battery going into thermal runaway. It
reignited five days after it was thought to have been under control,
injuring two firefighters and a tow truck driver. A week after the
incident, Tesla posted on its blog that "Tesla battery packs are
designed so that in the rare circumstance a fire occurs, it spreads
slowly so that occupants have plenty of time to get out of the car."
Explosion hazard
Another danger to first responders comes when thermal runaway doesn't
result in fire but instead causes a phenomenon known as "off-gassing."
"When you have a thermal runaway in a battery, it gets extremely hot. It
breaks down the chemicals inside and can make flammable gases," said
Adam Barowy, a research engineer at the UL Fire Safety Research
Institute. "If that gas doesn't ignite, as soon as it comes out of the
battery, it can build up and start to develop an explosion hazard."
That happened in Erie, Colorado, in April. Mountain View Fire Rescue
crews responding to reports of a fire at a home found smoke in the
secondary garage. It was emanating from a Jeep Wrangler 4XE hybrid
vehicle.
"They didn't see any flames. The problem with this was a buildup of
combustible gases inside the garage and started coming into the house,"
said Doug Saba, deputy fire marshal for Mountain View Fire Rescue. "That
happens a lot with batteries, lithium-ion batteries that fail. And they
fail because there's either a manufacturer defect or something damages
those batteries causing that. It could be an electrical short."
When they put water on it, an explosion blew the garage door off its
tracks 30 feet into the yard. Police body camera video shows the door
just missing the battalion chief's head as he stood outside.
"Luckily, he had his protective gear on, and the garage door actually
nicked his helmet," said Saba.
Three firefighters inside the garage were knocked off their feet; none
was seriously injured.
"So, there's kind of a two-pronged hazard. There's fire hazard, which
can be sort of rapidly developing in the case of e-bikes. And there's
this potential for an explosion hazard," said Barowy.
"Every three minutes there's a gasoline engine car fire, you don't hear
about those on the news. But if an electric vehicle catches fire today,
just one or two in this country, you'll hear about it on the news," said
Klock. "So, they're not more dangerous than gasoline cars. They're just
different. And if you're trained properly, you know you're going to be
able to handle that much better."
In an email to CBS News, a spokesperson for Jeep's parent company,
Stellantis, said the company "prioritizes the safety and well-being of
our customers and routinely reports relevant data to regulators and
other servants of the public interest."
"We also provide the first-responder community with detailed information
about handling our portfolio of electrified products," the spokesperson
said. "Stellantis vehicles are designed and built to meet or exceed all
applicable Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards."
Fragmented fire preparedness
Research and data about fire preparedness when it comes to lithium-ion
batteries is just beginning to be collected. CBS News surveyed two dozen
of the 50 largest fire departments nationwide on the topic and found
only about 38% have had hands-on training to fight lithium-ion battery
fires.
One survey respondent wrote:
"I don't believe we can say we have all that we need to support these
incidents. Most of the equipment used for these incidents is not fully
vetted and we are still working to identify the best options. Standard
operating procedures need to be vetted and finalized and these
procedures need to have consistencies that are shared between fire
agencies."
Another survey respondent wrote:
"This is an ever-evolving topic and as new technology comes out, we need
to continue to stay up on current trends, this is a work in progress.
"The prevalence and occurrence of hybrid/electric car and lithium-ion
battery fires is increasing. … Lithium-ion battery fires present a
severe hazard to the public and to our responders and we want to ensure
that our personnel are prepared to mitigate these incidents."
"I would hope that approximately half of the firefighters in this
country have had some exposure to training. But I would also expect that
maybe half have not. There are approximately 1.2 million firefighters in
the United States. So, there are many that need training," said Andrew
Klock of the NFPA.
CBS News' survey also points to a lack of consensus on the best way to
fight these fires — and there's no specific agency leading the charge to
identify best practices and required training.
"As compared to Europe, for example, the United States is very
fragmented in our approach," said Thomas Barth, investigator and
biomechanics engineer at the National Transportation Safety Board.
In 2020 the NTSB released a report on the safety risks to emergency
responders from lithium-ion battery fires and electric vehicles. At the
time they made recommendations for fire response and more research into
the stranded energy in these batteries that can lead to thermal runaway.
"As the deployment of this technology out to wider reaches of the field
across the United States, there's still more education and still more
work to do," said Barth.
Moore-Merrell agrees that emerging technology and innovation have been
outpacing the ability of safety organizations and regulatory agencies to
keep up.
While she says regulation is needed, she also believes more research
must first be done.
"I think we need to understand and have more information, more data.
Certainly, more outcome research on the incidents that do occur before
we can inform policy and regulation," she said. "Right now, we're not
even sure what to regulate because we don't know enough about the
incidents that are happening."
Filling the gap in training
Even though data is just being collected and research is ongoing, there
is a lot of training available — everything from online modules to
classroom education and practical field training is being offered by
numerous government and private agencies.
"This is an opportunity for automakers and General Motors certainly to
go out and demonstrate to the world and the communities around the world
our commitment to putting safe product out there," said Joe McLaine,
staff engineer with General Motors Global Product Safety and Systems
Division.
Over the past year, McLaine says GM has conducted hands-on EV emergency
response training in more than 25 different locations, reaching over
5,000 first and second responders.
"We gave the training in four-hour sessions, and we had them take a
training assessment. And when they did that assessment, they got a
certificate of completion," said McLaine.
Chris Soda, a veteran firefighter with the Chicago Fire Department,
started his own company to offer training. Junk Yard Dog Extrication
Training offers classes and hands-on training to fire departments,
police departments and towing companies to deal with battery fires.
"The tactics that we're using for internal combustion engine vehicles
don't really apply to the batteries these electric vehicles were
extinguishing," said Soda. "We don't have the science behind it to tell
us exactly what's going on and the best way to combat these fires. It's
kind of a patchwork of ideas of kind of what works best."
Last month Soda and his team held a training day in Camden, Michigan,
with about 83 firefighters from multiple departments in attendance.
Izzy Maguffee, a firefighter and EMT from neighboring Byron Township,
Michigan, took part in the training. She says that while she was given
cursory instruction on lithium-ion battery responses as a cadet, this
was the first time she had ever received hands-on training.
"A lot of what they're teaching is just basically knowledge on the
different battery positions — for us to be able to put it out. Where to
apply water, and just the best way for us to put them out since they're
such a different kind of animal than our normal fires are," she said.
Along with classroom activity, the group learned three different methods
for tilting vehicles to gain access to the battery for monitoring and
cooling as well as new extrication methods.
"There's no silver bullet to this. And there's not one fix for every
single electric vehicle incident. So, we're trying to give them a big
toolbox so that they can rely on that, and they can sometimes mix and
match techniques," said Soda.
The course also covers rapid extrication techniques for electric
vehicles focusing on the potential mechanical damage that batteries can
sustain after a collision and how to rapidly extricate entrapped
victims.
An app for that
One recommendation the NTSB makes is for all car manufacturers to
standardize their emergency response guides, known as ERGs, for first
responders. Because all alternative fuel vehicles are not the same, the
batteries can be in different places.
"We made a recommendation to every one of them to model their emergency
response guide on the ISO [International Organization for
Standardization] standard," said Thomas Barth of the NTSB. "It doesn't
dictate the content of the information. But it has these standardized
formats and colors and layout so that emergency responders, [if] they
have fire, they know right where to go."
Firefighters rely on these manuals from each individual manufacturer to
figure out what to do when they respond to an electric vehicle fire.
There are currently about 300 separate emergency response guides.
The NFPA maintains a collection of these guides on its website.
Pocket-sized books are also available.
"There's no centralized distribution of those response guides, whereas
in Europe it's a government requirement that they have a phone app.
Whereas in the United States that doesn't exist. It's more of an ad hoc
collection," said Barth.
It's why Phil Scarfi, a New York City firefighter, and his colleague
Scott Saal, who has nearly 40 years of experience in the automotive
collision industry, decided there should be an app for that here in the
U.S.
"It's called the Electric Vehicle Rescue app and it has all of the
emergency rescue guides, the ERGs, all in one place," said Saal.
Scarfi says that he found first responders were having trouble figuring
out where the battery on individual makes and models of electric and
hybrid vehicles were located — important details when every second
counts.
"They were popping up in all different locations, not the traditional
under the front hood. Sometimes they were in the rear, under the
passenger seat, all over the place. So it was taking a lot of first
responders a little bit of time to figure out where those battery
locations were. So that was the main basis of the app — provide an
application where people can reference those battery locations," said
Scarfi.
So far the app has been downloaded more than 65,000 times and is being
used in nearly every state in the U.S. and in Canada. Through their
nonprofit, Scarfi and Saal work with the manufacturers to ensure the
latest ERGs are pushed to the app to create an easily accessible and
updated source of information for first responders.
"It's critical that we provide all this information, as much information
as possible, so that we are both protecting the safety of first
responders but also the occupants of these vehicles while first
responders are working around them," said Scarfi.
GM is also working on a new concept app for ERGs. This app would give
first responders a 3D schematic of the vehicle before they arrive on
scene.
"A push of information — 3D rendering of the vehicle with overlays of
that vehicle to show the structure of the high strength steel where the
airbags or the supplemental restraints are, where the low voltage or
high voltage cut points may be in that vehicle, as well as overlaid
information from OnStar or other telematics information that could be
pushed directly to first responders," said McLaine. "We want to see this
be mandated."
Tesla, one of the auto manufacturers that use lithium-ion batteries, did
not respond to requests for comment for this story, but one survey
respondent said that the company had provided some training to their
department.
When asked about EV battery fires, Ford wrote in a statement: "We have a
long history of working closely with emergency workers and first
responders on auto safety issues and that continues as we enter the EV
era. We're further evaluating opportunities to help educate on this
important topic. Emergency response guides (which follow NTSB's
recommendation to utilize the ISO format) are available for all our Ford
electric vehicles."
In the meantime, firefighters like Chris Soda say they can't wait for
all the research and best practices to be established.
"The cars are out here today, and we don't have time to wait on that
technology to kind of catch up to ensure that we can operate safely."
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/lithium-ion-battery-fires-electric-cars-bike
s-scooters-firefighters/
Merc
Feb 17, 2024, 4:07:08 PM2/17/24
to
party and will soon crush it like a bug if he doesn't wake up and see the
light.
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