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As a volunteer firefighter I just took a class on how to handle EVs on fire.

1) Let it burn. It will take 10K gallons of water and four hours to mitigate. 2) Buy a $35K device to slide under vehicle which punctures battery cells and inserts water to mitigate fire under less than a half hour.

Key highlights:

1) If the batteries' relatively fragile cell barriers become damaged during an accident the fire will commence. 2) White smoke will emanate from the bottom of the vehicle which means you need to vacate the area immediately. 3) Once fire happens it can burn up to 6,000 degrees and flames can shoot out up to 20 feet per side of the vehicle.

Now imagine me approaching a vehicle with white smoke emanating from below to insert the puncture device, pondering when flames might shoot out a heat that will burn through my turnout gear... Ain't gonna happen, brother.

> As a volunteer firefighter I just took a class on how to handle EVs on fire. > 1) Let it burn. It will take 10K gallons of water and four hours to mitigate. 2) Buy a $35K device to slide under vehicle which punctures battery cells and inserts water to mitigate fire under less than a half hour. > Key highlights: > 1) If the batteries' relatively fragile cell barriers become damaged during an accident the fire will commence. 2) White smoke will emanate from the bottom of the vehicle which means you need to vacate the area immediately. 3) Once fire happens it can burn up to 6,000 degrees and flames can shoot out up to 20 feet per side of the vehicle. > Now imagine me approaching a vehicle with white smoke emanating from below to insert the puncture device, pondering when flames might shoot out a heat that will burn through my turnout gear... Ain't gonna happen, brother.

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We had a community event at our local fire station (basically a shed in the middle of dairy farms). They said that the vast majority of callouts were for car fires. Their tanker holds about 5000 litres (~1200gal) IIRC. They have no chance against an EV fire, they'd just have to stand back and watch it burn and prevent spread into and eroded areas where it might get away.

Same thing for me a few years back. There's no way any local volunteer fire department is staffed or equipped to handle an EV fire. Hell, the Sanibel, FL department couldn't handle golf cart fires (msn.com) caused by Hurricane Ian.