A burning EV parked at a gas pump could have been a disastrous situation. Fortunately, quick thinking and well-equipped emergency responders in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, quickly contained the fire, reports CBS News, and prevented the gas station from blowing up like the ones in the movies.
There’s no reason to park an EV at a gas pump instead of a regular parking space, but someone did it anyway. We don’t know how the fire actually started, but next to a gas pump is one of the worst possible places for it to happen. Police arrived on the scene first, and video shows them using their cruisers to push the smoking SUV, which appears to be a Kia EV6, away from the pumps to prevent this nightmare scenario.
It seems the first cruiser, a Ford Explorer, had trouble pushing it far enough, so a second cruiser finished pushing it to a grassy island, away from the pumps. The fire department arrived and put two special tools to use. The first was a giant fireproof blanket over the top of the vehicle to cut off the fire’s air supply. This isn’t always effective, as burning batteries release their own oxygen in the chemical reaction. However, in a Facebook post, the Brooklyn Center Fire Department said the blanket was there to “control the vapors and smoke” rather than smother the fire.
Not a turtle disaster
Firefighters also deployed a new tool designed specifically for EV fires: the Turtle Fire System. EV batteries are typically on the underside of the vehicle, which is difficult to reach with traditional fire hoses. Shaped like the shell of a turtle, this device attaches to the end of a fire hose, then slides underneath the burning vehicle, spraying more than 500 gallons per minute of water out the top of the shell in many directions, soaking the entire battery.
This can help put out flames, but its even more important task is to prevent thermal runaway. This is a condition where a failed cell inside the battery short-circuits and overheats, then spreads that heat to surrounding cells, causing a chain reaction of failures that is extremely hard to control once it starts, according to EV FireSafe. Keeping the battery pack cool with a device like the Turtle helps to stop that chain reaction from starting, preventing significantly more damage to the vehicle and anything nearby. Firefighters haven’t always been sure how to defeat EV fires, but they’ve been figuring it out over time. The Turtle was designed by Jersey City Fire Captain Howard “Buddy” Hayes after he discovered the shortcomings of his department’s existing equipment in battling EV fires.
With more and more EVs on the road (despite the current administration’s efforts), it’s good that tools like the Turtle are being developed to combat the unique challenges of EV fires. As a great philosopher once said, “Modern problems require modern solutions.”
