this post was submitted on 30 Aug 2024
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I mean, it's funny and ironic in that Alanis Morrisette kind of way. But it actually makes sense.
Fire hydrants are heavily engineered hunks of metal. Metal getting rammed into at speed is a great way to generate sparks. And lithium fires are scary as hell. There is areason ANYONE futzing around with lipos should have a bucket of sand handy and why, as the article states, first responders need to handle these specially.
It is a similar principle as to how you don't pour water on a grease fire.
Ok a few things:
Batteries don’t need “a few sparks” to catch fire. They will generate plenty of heat if punctured and self-ignite.
You don’t pour water on a grease fire because grease floats and it will spill out of your pot and catch the rest of your kitchen on fire. Also the water will boil and splatter oil everywhere.
Also pouring water on a battery fire is the preferred way to put it out. Many of the chemicals in the battery will release oxygen when heated, so the best way to put it out is to cool it down as much as possible by dousing it with a shitload of water. It isn’t always possible to apply enough water to the core of the fire which is why they are hard to put out. Sand won’t do anything because the fire is self-oxidizing.
Yes lithium metal reacts with water, but that’s not what makes batteries hard to put out.
I'm wondering if EVs shouldn't have mechanism where if fire is detected the bottom part (which holds the batteries) would simply separate and fall to the ground exposing the batteries to firemen and making it easier to stop the fire.
Sounds like it could also work as a hot-swap battery pack, where you could drive up to a carwash style apparatus which takes your low charge battery and puts in a fully charged one.