This story was written in response to a reader question submitted through our Open Source platform. Reader Tom Wise asked how is our local fire departments responds to electric car fires and how dangerous is the toxic fumes to the fireman and to the environment?
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MOUNT VERNON — A Knox Pages reader asked our newsroom: With the ever-increasing Electric Car fires, how is our local fire department to respond and how can they put out that fire? How dangerous is the toxic fumes to the fireman and to the environment?
Though there hasn’t been a single electric car fire for Mount Vernon’s Fire Department to quell, the squad is prepared if one were to occur, Fire Chief Chad Christopher said.
The toxic fumes are similar to electric car fires, Christopher said, adding that each car has plastics, rubber, pollsters similar to gasoline vehicles.
“There’s a lot more we’re learning on how to combat these fires,” Mount Vernon’s fire chief said.
Electric car fires can take longer to put out, potentially up to an hour, because of the car’s batteries refusing to die out. Often chemical agents are used to help the process of putting out the fire, Christopher said.
Still, water is still needed and a lot of it, too, the chief added.
“If it’s a vehicle fire electrical we know we’re going to have a heck of a lot of more water,” Christopher said. “You can put out the plastic, rubber, interior, but you have to cool the batteries down so they don’t reignite.
“It can take a considerable amount of water, several thousand of gallons.”
Depending on where the electric vehicle is located, a tanker might be needed in the county or an engine may need to hook up to a fire hydrant.
In Ohio, according to a CoPilot study:
- Percentage of registered vehicles that are electric: 0.14%
- Total registered electric vehicles: 14,530 (#17 overall)
- Number of statewide charging stations: 959 (#16 overall)
- Number of charging ports per 100 EVs: 15.2 (#35 overall)
Mount Vernon fire personnel train for electric car fires through discussions, watching informational videos and reading up-to-date studies about these specific fires, Christopher noted.
Working alongside the dispatch center is another key option to know if a car fire is a motor or electrical. This helps squads know what personal and equipment to bring to the scene.
“The biggest thing we can use is foam and standard agents, but the thing you have to be careful about is the toxic fumes the cars are putting out,” Central Ohio Joint Fire District Chief Mark McCann said. “Water may not be the best choice.”
McCann said fumes are more dangerous in the electric car due to the batteries in the vehicles.
“I think its part of the fire future and we’re learning all the time to fight the fire,” McCann said. “We’re constantly learning.”
