EVs can burn for days, firefighters have little or no training to deal with them, and conventional equipment isn’t effective. But new technology is being developed that should make all the difference.
The fumes from lithium ion are much more harmful. They can affect people just in the vicinity. And not in some worst case scenario of gas somehow spreading to occupants of the vehicle.
Gas tanks are generally very well confined. And if one were to rupture. It is likely to spread to the ground, not spray some imaginary people.
Gas tanks, by design, are not confined. The fuel needs to get into the engine to do its job. In an ICE vehicle, there’s fuel in a lot more than just the tank.
68% of car fire deaths resulted from a fire first started by flammable/combustible liquid ignition (fuel), and 63% of car fire deaths happened after collision or overturn.
The fumes from lithium ion are much more harmful. They can affect people just in the vicinity. And not in some worst case scenario of gas somehow spreading to occupants of the vehicle.
Gas tanks are generally very well confined. And if one were to rupture. It is likely to spread to the ground, not spray some imaginary people.
Gas tanks, by design, are not confined. The fuel needs to get into the engine to do its job. In an ICE vehicle, there’s fuel in a lot more than just the tank.
68% of car fire deaths resulted from a fire first started by flammable/combustible liquid ignition (fuel), and 63% of car fire deaths happened after collision or overturn.
Source: https://content.nfpa.org/-/media/Project/Storefront/Catalog/Files/Research/NFPA-Research/US-Fire-Problem/osvehiclefires.pdf?rev=ce9308b1447140ef9bef693635a96d71
Surprisingly, the deaths counted in this study were not imaginary people. They were real people driving real cars, that really lost their lives.