A look at Sacramento Metro Fire's specialized training for electric vehicle fires
SACRAMENTO — Monday's Tesla semi-truck fire along Interstate 80 is highlighting the challenges that first responders face when fighting an electric vehicle fire.
Firefighters say responding to an electric vehicle fire poses unique challenges not seen with gas-powered vehicles.
"We can't apply water necessarily directly to the batteries to stop them from burning," said Sacramento Metro Fire Captain Daniel Hoy. "A lot of that flame and heat is contained within a very tight package that is watertight."
Capt. Hoy wrote the department's guidelines on how to put out EV fires. Gas-powered vehicle fires can typically be extinguished with the 700 gallons of water carried by a single fire engine, but battery-powered vehicles can burn much longer and require more resources.
"You might need several thousands, if not tens of thousands of gallons of water to conduct those cooling measures," Hoy said. "You might not have that if you're isolated to a freeway where there's no hydrants."
Metro Fire has responded to four Tesla blazes so far. However, there are still a lot of unknown dangers like just how hazardous the fumes from lithium-ion batteries may be.
"They're releasing a lot of gases, many of which are flammable—things like carbon monoxide and hydrogen," Hoy said. "Hydrogen is extremely flammable and when you confine it, it can ignite and create an explosion."
The 1,000-volt batteries also pose an electrocution hazard so fire crews are being trained to cut the car's red safety wire.
"That de-energizes the entire high-voltage system," Hoy said.
Last year, Pepsi plants in Sacramento and Modesto were the first in the world to get a fleet of Tesla semi-trucks. And California has more electric cars than any other state.
Fire crews say they are expecting to see more EV fires as the state moves toward banning the sale of all new gas-powered vehicles by 2035.
"We need to be ready for these types of things," Hoy said.
Metro Fire is making its training guidelines available to other fire departments in the region. Researchers with the National Transportation Safety Board, car manufacturers and other agencies are in the middle of a three-year study to determine the hazards of electric vehicle fires.