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Sacremento FD finds way to put out Tesla fire.

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Sacremento FD finds way to put out Tesla fire.
Posted by blue streak 1 on Sunday, June 12, 2022 9:37 PM

FD eventually put car and battery into pit of water.  Might be something for us posters to remember.

Watch: Sacramento firefighters fight their first Tesla fire that kept reigniting (msn.com)

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Posted by SD60MAC9500 on Sunday, June 12, 2022 11:16 PM
 

Well FD's need to get ready for these events to happen more often. Water isn't the trick for vehicle Li-Ion battery fires. They'll need to have; chemical, CO2, or powdered fire suppressants.

 
 
 
 
 
Rahhhhhhhhh!!!!
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Posted by mudchicken on Monday, June 13, 2022 12:16 AM

Rivian is having battery fires on the factory floor before the vehicles even get out the door. Brave new world of the electric battery powered car.

Mudchicken Nothing is worth taking the risk of losing a life over. Come home tonight in the same condition that you left home this morning in. Safety begins with ME.... cinscocom-west
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Posted by Flintlock76 on Monday, June 13, 2022 8:03 AM

SD60MAC9500
 

Well FD's need to get ready for these events to happen more often. Water isn't the trick for vehicle Li-Ion battery fires. They'll need to have; chemical, CO2, or powdered fire suppressants.

 
 
 
 
 
 

I've been following electric car battery fires as the news stories appear.  All of the above have been tried and don't work.  I'm sure the problem's being worked on but at the moment nothing seems to work, all firefighters can do is keep the fire localized and prevent it from spreading and just wait for it to burn out. 

I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but I've got a brother-in-law who's a real "Car Guy."  Not a conservative at all when it comes to new automotive concepts he's got no use for electric cars for a number of reasons and won't touch one with a ten foot pole.  

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Posted by 54light15 on Monday, June 13, 2022 10:55 AM

A friend has a new Chevy Bolt? Volt? The small one, anyway. He got a service bulletin telling him not to park it indoors and to keep it away from buildings. Otherwise it's a fairly nice car. 

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Monday, June 13, 2022 11:17 AM

54light15

A friend has a new Chevy Bolt? Volt? The small one, anyway. He got a service bulletin telling him not to park it indoors and to keep it away from buildings. Otherwise it's a fairly nice car. 

 

Well as ol' Ben Franklin once said:

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!"

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Posted by zugmann on Monday, June 13, 2022 11:18 AM

Makes charging it up kind of hard. 

It's been fun.  But it isn't much fun anymore.   Signing off for now. 


  

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Monday, June 13, 2022 11:23 AM

zugmann

Makes charging it up kind of hard. 

 

Yeah.  Maybe he could use a charger hooked up to a gasoline powered generator? Whistling

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Posted by zugmann on Monday, June 13, 2022 11:27 AM

One of the Ford brochures I read talked about you can use the new F150 hybrid as a level 2 charger for electric cars.  

 

So you can get a hybrid F150 to charge up your Mustang Mach-E.  

 

It's been fun.  But it isn't much fun anymore.   Signing off for now. 


  

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Monday, June 13, 2022 11:30 AM

zugmann

One of the Ford brochures I read talked about you can use the new F150 hybrid as a level 2 charger for electric cars.  

 

So you can get a hybrid F150 to charge up your Mustang Mach-E.  

 

 

Now that might make a good marketing strategy for Ford:

"Buy a new F150 Hybrid and we'll make you a deal on a Mustang Mach-E!"

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Posted by Murphy Siding on Monday, June 13, 2022 12:13 PM

blue streak 1

FD eventually put car and battery into pit of water.  Might be something for us posters to remember.

Watch: Sacramento firefighters fight their first Tesla fire that kept reigniting (msn.com)

 

When I followed that link yesterday, it had a link to a story about a fire at the rail yard in Sacramento. I don't see that link today. Maybe I could find that on a railroad website.

Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.

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Posted by ROBIN LUETHE on Monday, June 13, 2022 7:25 PM

Batteries for EVs are still a fairly novel and new technology. It is going to take a few years for battery fires to be reduced and for fire departments to have the gear and training to combat them. And even as things are now, EV fires are far less to be feared than natural gas explosions from faulty gas lines and appliances.  

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Posted by tree68 on Monday, June 13, 2022 8:23 PM

ROBIN LUETHE

Batteries for EVs are still a fairly novel and new technology. It is going to take a few years for battery fires to be reduced and for fire departments to have the gear and training to combat them. And even as things are now, EV fires are far less to be feared than natural gas explosions from faulty gas lines and appliances.  

In the words of a fellow from GM's Proving Grounds, after an apparent EV fire there this spring, and as quoted in the Detroit News - such fires are going to be "exposure events. "

Protect the exposures and don't worry about the vehicle itself.

Thousands of gallons of water are just a waste of time and resources, unless you can submerge the vehicle, as indicated in the article cited in the thread.  We can hope that some technology is developed that will allow fire departments to extinguish these fires, or that some technology in the batteries themselves will be developed to make them self extinguishing.

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Posted by Euclid on Monday, June 13, 2022 8:41 PM

What causes lithium ion battery fires to ignite, and what is the fuel that burns in a L.I. battery fire?

Is there a known technical solution to eliminate L.I. battery fires?  If so, what is it?

Maybe the answers are in this link:

https://www.ionenergy.co/resources/blogs/battery-safety/#:~:text=However%2C%20lithium%2Dion%20batteries%20are,and%20can%20cause%20widespread%20damage.

 

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Posted by SD60MAC9500 on Monday, June 13, 2022 9:21 PM
 

Euclid

What causes lithium ion battery fires to ignite, and what is the fuel that burns in a L.I. battery fire?

Is there a known technical solution to eliminate L.I. battery fires?  If so, what is it?

Maybe the answers are in this link:

https://www.ionenergy.co/resources/blogs/battery-safety/#:~:text=However%2C%20lithium%2Dion%20batteries%20are,and%20can%20cause%20widespread%20damage.

 

 

Typically it's a short in the EV's battery pack. Wayne mentioned above that FD's have tried to use the methods I stated, but I can't find anything besides FD's using water.

There's currently a metallic filmed blanket testing to extinguish li-ion battery fires. Also a fluid called AVD 

https://www.avdfire.com/

Of course these come with greater cost than water.

 
Rahhhhhhhhh!!!!
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Posted by samfp1943 on Monday, June 13, 2022 9:26 PM
THIS Thread seems to beg the question: In regards to these new Battery Electric Locomotives (?) IF submersion is the fastest 'Fix" for a Lithium/Ion battery fire... On who's authority does one run the engine in to the closest river or creek? to extinguish the fire, and then; what department (supervisor) gets to write the loss report out for THAT loss?

 

 


 

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Posted by samfp1943 on Monday, June 13, 2022 9:29 PM

 

samfp1943

THIS Thread seems to beg the question: In regards to these new Battery Electric Locomotives (?) IF submersion is the fastest 'Fix" for a Lithium/Ion battery fire... On who's authority does one run the engine in to the closest river or creek? to extinguish the fire, and then; what department (supervisor) gets to write the loss report out for THAT loss?

 

 

 


 

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Posted by 54light15 on Monday, June 13, 2022 9:34 PM

An electric, four door Mustang. I don't know which is more wrong. 

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Posted by tree68 on Monday, June 13, 2022 9:40 PM

samfp1943
THIS Thread seems to beg the question: In regards to these new Battery Electric Locomotives (?) IF submersion is the fastest 'Fix" for a Lithium/Ion battery fire... On who's authority does one run the engine in to the closest river or creek? to extinguish the fire, and then; what department (supervisor) gets to write the loss report out for THAT loss?

If it proves to be a problem, perhaps making the battery enclosure essentially watertight, and adding a fire department connection to the locomotive...

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Posted by BaltACD on Monday, June 13, 2022 9:42 PM

54light15
An electric, four door Mustang. I don't know which is more wrong. 

Going back to the 'early days' of the Thunderbird - when it got turned into a four door lead sled - Ford does know how to screw up good things.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Tuesday, June 14, 2022 9:14 AM

54light15

An electric, four door Mustang. I don't know which is more wrong. 

 

Oh yeah, Lee Iaccoca must be spinning in his grave at 2,000 RPM!

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Posted by Overmod on Tuesday, June 14, 2022 9:30 AM

tree68
If it proves to be a problem, perhaps making the battery enclosure essentially watertight, and adding a fire department connection to the locomotive...

I know this is tongue-in-cheek, and the words "steam explosion" came noisomely to mind almost immediately, but it is true that water is the most effective 'normal' method to abstract heat from the battery, and excessive-heat effects are what will have led to a battery fire in most cases.

The current fire-department dodge in Tesla fires appears to be to tip the car on its side and play hoses on the bottom until the stranded-charge effects cease.  As I noted some time ago, Tesla and other manufacturers are going to have to provide some sort of test arrangement or architecture for first responders to verify fill discharge of all cells before departing, or allowing transport of the vehicle -- this is not rocket science, but requires good detail design and implementation at a (nominally) higher cost.

The correct thing to do in the locomotive case is probably to make the ventilation system for the battery -- which will be of considerable cooling capacity and rate on a properly-designed locomotive -- more watertight, and arrange spray nozzles in this space connected to pressurized water, perhaps even using a booster pump arrangement.  This would flash water to steam with greatest efficiency, carrying away the maximum heat in the (lavish) steam analogous to how misters in garden restaurants reduce air temperature.  (That at any rate is the approach I anticipate using for this concern... derived by analogy to the Reid-Ramsay turbine's condenser arrangement, but better oprimized)

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Posted by Overmod on Tuesday, June 14, 2022 9:44 AM

Flintlock76
An electric, four door Mustang. I don't know which is more wrong. 

Oh yeah, Lee Iacocca must be spinning in his grave at 2,000 RPM!

Just remember this: The fastest car sold in America is a Consulier, a specialized racing vehicle.  The second-fastest has four doors and rear seat heaters.

And the electric drive -- actually being sold as a retrofit package for older cars by Ford! -- sure beats the heck out of ANY six-cylinder Mustang ever sold, and there were many, many of those.

The box Birds didn't last long; they were a product of the same miscalculation that led to the Edsel division.  But what persisted was four-seat Birds, and my '62 was a particularly useful example of the formula: if you wanted the two-seater vibe, you put the tonneau cover on, and the engine under the hood was a 390 FE with a 650 double-pumper... with four perfectly symmetrical venturis... which was easily good for 130mph, far beyond what either the damping or the tires were really good for.  And if you put the girl in the middle of the back seat, her long blonde hair would blow straight forward at 80mph, at which speed the loudest sound was the patter of the tires on the road, and you could identify all four of them.  That is not a 'sports car' but it was certainly as fun as one in a different set of ways.

It does remain to be seen whether Ford understands how to do ludicrous+ speed, but it is certainly an aftermarket probability... at least until the street-racing community discovers the possibilities.

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Posted by 54light15 on Tuesday, June 14, 2022 12:55 PM

I love the "Bullet Birds" built from 61 to 63. I drove one but it wasn't mine. I wanted one badly until the Mustang came out. it was Iacocca's singular work of genius as there never was a car like it before. My all time favourite Mustang was the 66 Fastback I saw at a car show. 6 cylinder, 3 speed with overdrive and old-school Cragars. The guy said it got 27 MPG. All of the chassis plates were in German and it had a metric speedometer. Made to be rented in Germany by Hertz. Almsot a captive market with all the American soldiers stationed over there back then. "Payday! Let's rent one of those new Mustangs!" 

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Posted by Electroliner 1935 on Tuesday, June 14, 2022 8:48 PM

Part of the battery is the amount of energy (Kilowatts) stored in them. A fault is like a short circuit with NO fuse or circuit breaker to stop the flow of energy to the short. An analogy is an electric welder gone wild. It is going to be interesting to see who comes up with a good safe way to b.uild them. I wonder if any Prius's have caught fire since the 2018 recall. Google did not show me any

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Posted by Erik_Mag on Wednesday, June 15, 2022 10:52 PM

Overmod

more watertight, and arrange spray nozzles in this space connected to pressurized water, perhaps even using a booster pump arrangement.

OM, are you talking about a battery safety system or the emergency core cooling system for a nuclear power reactor??

Methinks that for a battery locomotive, it would behoove the designers to be especially generous with the fluid capacity of the battery's thermal management system. As you poited out, boiling the water would absorb a lot of heat.

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Posted by BaltACD on Wednesday, June 15, 2022 11:26 PM

Erik_Mag
 
Overmod

more watertight, and arrange spray nozzles in this space connected to pressurized water, perhaps even using a booster pump arrangement. 

OM, are you talking about a battery safety system or the emergency core cooling system for a nuclear power reactor??

Methinks that for a battery locomotive, it would behoove the designers to be especially generous with the fluid capacity of the battery's thermal management system. As you poited out, boiling the water would absorb a lot of heat.

If we think a runaway diesel is bad - it doesn't hold a candle to a runaway battery, especially a battery big enough to power a locomotive.

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Posted by Euclid on Thursday, June 16, 2022 7:11 AM
One source details how LI batteries will fail from excessive heat.  But apparently, the issue is not heat directly related to pulling too much load.  I think that preventing that cause would be relatively easy by using an overload protection cutout.
 
However the listed source of causes for excess heat does not include pulling excess load.  Instead, it only includes these causes, all related to other abnormalities including manufacturing and design flaws or poor quality control.    
 
It sounds like the reason this problem exists is that it is exceptionally hard to solve.  And the only comfort comes from the fact that it is relatively rare.
 
LIST OF CAUSES:
 
A. Manufacturing Defects
B. Design Flaws
C. Abnormal or Improper Usage
D. Charger Issues
E. Low-quality components
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Posted by tree68 on Thursday, June 16, 2022 8:14 AM

Euclid
I think that preventing that cause would be relatively easy by using an overload protection cutout.

It would be interesting to know whether such batteries have "short time ratings," like locomotives.  I'd hate to be in a traffic situation which called for "punching it" only to have the car say"  nope - overload...

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Posted by MidlandMike on Thursday, June 16, 2022 8:38 PM

I saw a documentary on Li-ION batteries.  Under some circumstances the electrolite can start to crystalize, forming long chains that can bridge the gap, short out causing immediate discharge and run-away heat.  They had a potential fix, but as I remember it would take quite a redesign change.

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