California firefighters had to douse a flaming battery in a Tesla Semi with about 50,000 gallons (190,000 liters) of water to extinguish flames after a crash, the National Transportation Safety Board said Thursday.
In addition to the huge amount of water, firefighters used an aircraft to drop fire retardant on the “immediate area” of the electric truck as a precautionary measure, the agency said in a preliminary report.
Firefighters said previously that the battery reached temperatures of 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit (540 Celsius) while it was in flames.
The NTSB sent investigators to the Aug. 19 crash along Interstate 80 near Emigrant Gap, about 70 miles (113 kilometers) northeast of Sacramento. The agency said it would look into fire risks posed by the truck’s large lithium-ion battery.
Is water the best choice for a chemical fire?
Depends on the chemical, but it is an appropriate way to fight a liion battery fire though.
You’re fighting thermal runaway. Water is very effective at cooling and helps control the fire and keep the heat down. US DOT recommends water spray.
Maybe. Water is cheap, available in quantity, and non-polluting. Since a battery fire is self-oxygenating, I don’t think putting it out is something you expect. All you can do is take away the heat both to contain the damage and to eventually stop the reaction.
And water has great heat capacity, with a nice phase change, too.
From reading other links in this post, it sounds like pollution (runoff) is a concern, which is unfortunate.
The water is non-polluting, the battery chemicals not so much
I don’t think so, but what else are you gonna do? Can’t really submerge it in foam at a moments notice like you’re supposed to
The nords figured out you can put it out immersing it in salt water. Pretty self explanatory.
Toss them into the sea and never look back?
It absolutely isn’t.
But it the most available and least toxic fire suppression, especially on a highway.
Foam is full of PFAS, etc and the cost (in CO2 and money) of air dropping, and having to wash the foam off the highway afterwards - leading to runoff - is huge.
Imagine that happening 100 times per day on American highways (when electric trucks become commonly used).
This is a very confident statement. Surely you have the qualifications and certifications to back up your confidence?
How about a google search then you dunce:
“water should not be used on fires involving electrical equipment, grease, or certain types of chemicals.”
Mmhmm mmhmm. So by any chance do you know why it shouldn’t be used on those types of fires…?
Not my responsibility to educate those too stupid to Google stuff.
“I tried to act smart but I lack the supportive data and citations, so I’m just going to revert to the 8th grade with a good-ol’ no u and tell them to look it up themselves. I’m the smartest person in the room!” -you
Where did I try to act smart? What are you talking about?
Nnnno, I’m sorry, you’ve misunderstood - I was airing my (fairly reasonable) doubt that you don’t know why it shouldn’t be used on those types of fires.
It is, I admit, also not my responsibility to educate those too stupid to google stuff, but just for fun: Electrocution risk, grease fires explode when doused with water, unknown chemicals may interact with water unpredictably.
Water is absolutely used to combat battery fires. It won’t extinguish them, but since firefighting is more complicated than “it puts the water on the flames or else it gets the hose again”, that’s not really the goal. It’s to keep the chassis/batteries cool, douse the surrounding area to prevent the fire from spreading and keep any toxic combustion products from spreading via smoke (yes, that means they get washed into the environment. Not ideal, but better than breathing it.)
Maybe I’d even consider answering if you show my where I said that. And don’t count that quote of the first google response, that was just an example of how easy stuff is to look up.
So to summarize, people that don’t google things or educate themselves are ‘stupid’ and ‘dunces’ and your example of this, a quote from google that turns out to be wildly incorrect in this context, isn’t evidence I can use, because it’s just an example of how easy it is to look things up.
Water is in fact use, very often. I said it’s not “the best”. You yourself said it’s not ideal, completely agreeing with me.
Can you make clear your point other that picking fights on the Internet?