Aurora, Colorado (KDVR) – happens more and more: electric cars that hunt fire, which can be particularly stubborn and dangerous to control.
Now, thanks to a $ 2500 grant from E-470, Aurora Fire Rescue can buy multiple extinguishing blankets to help contain EV fires.
“Everyone looks at them at this stage and time. Whether they can already bear their costs … for this reason the grant is very nice,” said Paul Shomeker in Aurora Fire. “Now we can bear something we cannot tolerate before.”
Since 2018, Shoemaker has seen an increase in EV fires.
“The main challenge is the amount of water required to put this car. Then, how quickly it is burned, and the extent of the speed of the fire in the car,” he said.
He saw the firefighting sets directly in March when they responded to a fatal accident that included Tesla. EV was damaged by the battery and entered the thermal, and the fire escalated immediately. The crews had to let them burn for about six hours. They say it is a tactic that can always be used depending on resources.
“It is difficult as a firefighter, as we train our entire life to pull a hose line, and put the water on something. We want to make the dramatic and immediate effect. Therefore, it is difficult to want to burn something for six hours for us not to want to do something.”.
Now, with the help of the E-470, which added to some of the already allocated money, their department can do an additional thing by adding five extinguishing blankets to help processing EV fire.
“These are blankets that we will not use in every type of parking. We can extinguish most of these car fires with water in the city because we have taps. It will be very specific parking as we face problems in exposure or lack water supply,” said Shomeker. “We have many highways in our city, and they do not have taps on them. For the exam, the east I-70 and the e-470 corridor, this is what E-470 and Aurora Fire wanted to meet to buy this. Without the presence of water there, we have to dramatically stop, and therefore it is a great place to use fire.”
Shomeker explained how this will be the game changed.
“This will allow us after that to stop the growth of the fire and put the water on it as soon as the kitchen occupies the scene. We also want to use it in garages or parking garages, and perhaps residential garages. It slows the problem of exposure to getting home, allowing us to get the scene withdrawing the car from the house and then applying the water to the car to cool this car quickly.”
The grant will also help prevent firefighters.
“Many safety problems, one of which is the heat and the density of fire, like something that we have not seen before,” said Shomeker. “When it comes out of these cars very hot and intense, they can actually burn our equipment, and our cellar shoes, causing physical damage to the firefighters. The gases that are released from these compounds are incredibly dangerous. Exit from the skin through these toxic chemicals through our skin is incredibly dangerous.
The heads of the battalion from the north to the southern end of the region will receive immediate access to the firefighters that will greatly help to drop the amount of water that the crews will have to put it on fire quickly.
“This will be incredibly useful not only for us to influence greatly, but on citizens and perhaps this is our primary concern,” said Shomeker.
These blankets can only be used once due to pollutants, and cost about $ 1,000 each.