Electric vehicles are set explode in popularity as automakers are gearing up to introduce countless new models and governments are working to ban the sale of new vehicles with internal combustion engines.
While a lot of preparations are already underway for this shift, it appears fire departments in the United States haven’t given much thought to electric vehicle fires.
According to a survey released by the National Transportation Safety Board, as part of a special report into the “Safety Risks to Emergency Responders from Lithium-Ion Battery Fires in Electric Vehicles,” 50% of fire departments – which responded to a survey in 2018 – had no “post-crash / fire protocols” in place for hybrid or electric vehicles. Furthermore, over 31% of responding departments had no hybrid or electric vehicle incident training.
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https://www.facebook.com/LosAngelesFireDepartment/photos/a.778915298806322/3430649293632896
Those are some scary numbers and over 65% of departments said resource or funding shortages were an obstacle for training or responding to incidents with hybrid or electric vehicles. However, it’s important to note the survey only included 32 departments and over 40% were volunteer units which likely had limited resources to begin with.
A separate part of the report examined the prevalence of fires in vehicles involved in fatal accidents. It found an average of 3.2% of vehicles in fatal crashes experienced a fire and most (4.7%) occurred in diesel-powered vehicles. Petrol-powered vehicles came in at 3.2%, while hybrids and EVs came in at 1.4% and 2.0%, respectably.
However, the government noted a number of a caveats including a lack of information about the fire source, the older ages of petrol and diesel vehicles, and a limited population of electric vehicles which made “fire prevalence estimates for this group … less likely to be reliable.”
While things have changed since 2018, it’s obvious more work needs to be done to ensure first responders are prepared for hybrid and electric vehicle fires. Thankfully, the report says the National Fire Protection Agency has developed a “comprehensive awareness training programs equipped with safety videos, animations, and reference material to train our nation’s first and second responder communities with the knowledge and skills necessary to work safely with these new technologies.” These resources as well as vehicle specific emergency response guides can be found here.
H/T to Bloomberg
