A new crash recently in Alabama, but a reminder to something that we all know. Burning Teslas are far more difficult to extinguish than any other car.

  • The Pantser@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Which is why we don’t use water on lithium fires. Fire departments need new ways to extinguish ev fires. Maybe some thick foam or a load of sand to dump over the ev.

    • EatYouWell@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Cooling down the reaction is the only way to stop the fires. The chemical reaction is self oxidizing so you can’t smother it.

      • rdyoung@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        I’d rather see them contain it with sand or gravel and let it burn itself out rather than waste thousands of gallons of water trying to cool it off enough to stop it. Foam is also an option as is usually used with chemical fires.

        • EatYouWell@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          The smoke from the fire is extremely toxic, so letting it burn out is a bad idea. Plus, it’s not wasting water, since the water isn’t removed from the environment.

          • rdyoung@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            I’m not sure you understand what waste means here. Of course water is never removed from the environment unless it’s sitting in storage containers. I’m going to assume (I know) that you know what I meant and are just being precocious and pedantic.

            As for the smoke. Yes it is dangerous but we deal with that all the time with fertilizer plants going up in smoke, trains derailing, etc. Cover the ev with enough sand or other similar material and that will absorb some of the toxic shit, the rest will just go to the sky and hopefully not kill anything flying overhead. Those of us on the east coast literally (and yes I mean literally) just dealt with this earlier this year with the Canadian forest fires. Smoke was making it’s way as far south as the Carolinas and even this far south people with allergies, asthma, etc were feeling it.

            As I said. I’d rather see them let it burn itself out. Unless they are using non-potable water that we don’t want to drink or there happens to be a major water source close enough.

    • rdyoung@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      They have alternative methods. These folks need to learn how to deal with these. I’m pretty sure other ev fires have had foam or sand of some sort used or you just let it burn. I’d bet this fire department would use water on a grease fire.

        • rdyoung@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          The interwebs has plenty of videos of what happens when water hits a grease fire (if that’s what you are talking about).