Backside line: Statistical information reveals that electrical automobile fires happen at an analogous frequency to these in automobiles with inner combustion engines, however this presents little consolation to firefighters. These fires are notoriously troublesome to extinguish and pose elevated risks to first responders. At the very least two fires have resulted from Tesla Cybertruck crashes, elevating issues in regards to the security of high-voltage lithium-ion batteries.
Earlier this week, a Tesla Cybertruck erupted into flames after crashing into a hearth hydrant outdoors a Bass Professional Store in Harlingen, Texas. The collision resulted in a deluge of water soaking the automobile’s battery, which then ignited, in accordance with Assistant Fireplace Chief Ruben Balboa of the Harlingen Fireplace Division. First responders arrived on the scene and believed that they had extinguished the flames engulfing the Cybertruck. Nonetheless, the fireplace reignited after that they had stopped the water movement onto the battery, highlighting a difficult concern related to electrical automobile fires.
This incident is the second hearth in Texas involving a Tesla Cybertruck. The primary occurred after an proprietor drove right into a ditch. It’s the first deadly crash involving the mannequin. In that case, the blaze’s depth was so extreme that it obliterated the automobile’s VIN and left the driving force unidentifiable.
The Harlingen incident underscores the difficulties these fires pose to first responders trying to extinguish blazing batteries. Electrical automobile batteries can endure a course of often known as thermal runaway, the place a failure in a single cell generates sufficient warmth and fuel to trigger a sequence response in adjoining cells.
The ensuing hearth burns at extraordinarily excessive temperatures, generally reaching 2,300 to five,000 levels Fahrenheit, taking hours to extinguish. Firefighters have needed to adapt their techniques to struggle these fires, utilizing full private protecting gear because of the poisonous fumes. New options, akin to EV fire-specific hearth blankets, are additionally being developed to handle these challenges.
Moreover, first responders have discovered that EV fires demand considerably extra water to extinguish. In 2021, Austin Fireplace Division Division Chief Thayer Smith advised Futurism that Tesla automobiles require as much as 30,000 to 40,000 gallons of water to place out – roughly 40 instances the quantity wanted for a combustion engine automobile.
Satirically, Tesla posted an in depth rescue sheet for its Cybertruck the week earlier than the Harlingen hearth. Tesla designed the information to help first responders by informing them the place the automobile’s low and high-voltage energy cables terminate.
Whereas such incidents are inclined to make headlines, it is vital to notice that electrical automobiles typically don’t catch hearth extra incessantly than inner combustion engine automobiles. Tesla’s world information signifies that, on common, a Tesla automobile hearth happens as soon as each 130 million miles traveled, considerably much less frequent than the common automobile hearth charge of 1 per 18 million miles traveled within the US.