• ShittyRedditWasBetter@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Please try to ignore the facts and pretend like it’s not significantly harder to contain a fucking gas fire and significantly less dangerous. Disingenuous bullshit.

    • CADmonkey@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Unlike gas cars, which every single fire department in the US has been dealing with for over 100 years, electric cars need different equipment to put them out. Not all fire departments have the stuff on hand for battery fires. In 20 years this will probably change.

    • FiveMacs@lemmy.ca
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      10 months ago

      Yeah but air doesn’t cause gasoline to just combust. You kinda need some sort of ignition to ignite the fuel. Batteries just need to be Chinese made, or some air.

      Also good luck putting it out. You just have to watch it burn.

        • Cruxifux@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          Nah bro you just gotta watch it burn bro trust me bro fire fighters are useless against the scourge of the battery bro

        • FiveMacs@lemmy.ca
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          10 months ago

          Pretending the fire isn’t there…it’s more to contain the fire rather then put it out. You aren’t stopping that chemical reaction with a blanket.

      • Cruxifux@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Right. Sorry I would have replied earlier but my phone rang while I was fuelling up my car and the gas station exploded.

      • rotopenguin
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        10 months ago

        Fuel is very pressurized coming out of the fuel tank pump, and 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 pressurized by the time it gets to the injector rail. When it comes out it will be atomized, and to a stoichiometric mist EVERYTHING is an ignition source.

        • ShittyRedditWasBetter@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          And yet we rarely have uncontrollable ICE fires despite an overwhelming heavy use but a larger portion of EVs ends up dunked in water tanks for days because of lack of training. FFS 🤦‍♂️ realty is lost on you people.

        • FiveMacs@lemmy.ca
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          10 months ago

          Cool, evs are still dangerous and you can’t stop that fire. At least the gas will explode and can be dealt with unlike batteries. I never once said gas is not a danger, but that EVs pose a worse threat WHEN they fail because of the extreme heat or floods etc…

          Watch the news once more and more of these time bombs are on the road. It’s only going to happen more and more especially once they start sitting around in junkyards and people leave them in their driveways to rot.

  • Mothra@mander.xyz
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    10 months ago

    As someone who doesn’t understand a thing about cars, and evs in particular- wat? Do they combust spontaneously?

    • malloc@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      EVs don’t combust spontaneously. If the battery of an EV is compromised or battery pack is pierced and lithium is exposed to air. Then that violent reaction (lithium oxidizing the air) will produce the fire you see.

      I think this is from a training exercise though. Suspiciously empty lot. Some branding on vehicle might indicate test site. The idea here is that by covering the vehicle with the fire resistant blanket, the fire will consume all of the oxygen and eventually put it self out.

    • Beetschnapps@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      No. In fact they are typically quite safe but there are some edge cases that pop up given the size and power of the batteries. E.g. Recently it was reported in Florida that some EVs had similar battery issues as a result of hurricanes flooding them with salt water. Thats not a normal occurrence. It makes sense that salt water and batteries aren’t totally simpatico, but more importantly for this to happen you had to leave your car by the ocean in a hurricane, not a spontaneous thing.

      Conversely I had a friend driving a brand new ford fiesta and one of the front wheels just came off at speed on the highway…

      • malloc@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        I can see flooded EVs susceptible to electric shorting. But I haven’t read or seen any reports of combustion simply due to exposure from salt water. Maybe those vehicles were pierced by some object during hurricane?

        Do you have a source?

        Also modern ICE vehicles not immune to electrical shortages due to heavy water exposure. Most if not all have ECUs and other electronic equipment that is sensitive to water exposure.

        • KaiReeve@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          It’s fairly common for ocean-front condos in Florida to have parking garages that are below sea level. If the surf rises enough to breach the seawall then it will flood the garage levels and not the condos where people are likely sheltering. This is most likely where those Teslas were parked, so it’s unlikely that they were subjected to the hurricane force winds.

        • EnderofGames@kbin.social
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          10 months ago

          …not immune to electrical shortages due to heavy water exposure.

          Well, maybe they should keep their cars out of nuclear reactors!

    • Rivalarrival@lemmy.today
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      10 months ago

      No, they do not spontaneously combust. They just burn differently. They electrolytically produce very large quantities of flammable vapors and oxidizers. Because they are not entirely reliant on atmospheric oxygen, it is extraordinarily difficult to extinguish them.

      It takes 10+ times as much water to extinguish a battery fire as an equivalent petro-fuel fire.