If there are not necessarily more numerous than those of thermal models, electric car fires can be more difficult to extinguish. To the point of pushing a union of Belgian firefighters to demand the banning of this type of vehicle in underground car parks!
Prohibit electric cars from underground parking, in the same way as LPG models without a safety valve? While the European Union wants to ban sales of new heat engines from 2035, the idea may seem totally against the grain. But it is nevertheless what the president of one of the main Belgian firefighters’ unions, Eric Labourdette, claims, in an interview with the Brussels daily La Capitale.
“It is time to legislate to prohibit the parking of electric cars in underground car parks”, for the SLFP Firefighters! https://t.co/AhD5Kn4orl
— Sudinfo LaCapitale (@LaCapitale_be) February 13, 2022
His reaction follows a fire that broke out on a Volkswagen ID.3 which was parked in the third basement, while the German compact was apparently not charging.
““Fortunately the car park was practically deserted last Friday evening, otherwise the spread of the fire would have been uncontrollable,” says Eric Labourdette.“
“When you look at the photos taken by the Brussels firefighters, the ceiling broke, the concrete gave way, etc. With other cars parked nearby, it would have created a chain reaction.
Rare but difficult to extinguish fires
However, fires are not necessarily more numerous on electric cars than on thermal models. In early January, a study by the American insurance comparator AutoinsuranceEZ even argued the opposite. The main problem is that it is very difficult to put out a fire on a high voltage lithium-ion battery.
““When a lithium-ion battery cell in an electric car catches fire, spraying it with water only cools the whole thing, not extinguishes the fire,” explains Eric Labourdette. “After turning off the vehicle, it must be immersed in a homemade container for at least 72 hours”.“
A solution that is not easy to implement, especially underground. The president of the SLFP Pompiers also deplores the lack of training suffered by his profession on the subject in Belgium:“Today, firefighters still have no course on how to intervene on a burning electric car,” he says. “We, we have to go to the pipe breaker. »
Pollution also in question
Finally, Eric Labourdette also wonders about the question of the pollution caused by this lithium-ion battery fire. Based on the work of researchers from the Federal Materials Testing and Research Laboratory in Switzerland, who had shown that the main environmental danger came from the contamination of extinguishing water. Their chemical load is 70 times higher than the Swiss limit values for industrial wastewater! The soot contains large quantities of cobalt oxide, nickel oxide and manganese oxide, requiring the intervention of professionals equipped with protective suits.
Enhanced security measures?
But as mentioned in the preamble, the ban on electric cars in underground car parks seems impossible to envisage in the current context. In contrast, we can expect to see new measures aimed at minimizing the consequences of such fires, both in terms of infrastructure and vehicles. Renault, for example, worked with the emergency services to equip its new Electric Megane E-Tech specific access for firefighters (Fireman Access) allowing them to drown the battery. A solution that could well become widespread pending the announced advent of solid electrolyte batteries which promise, among many other advantages, to be much less flammable than those with liquid electrolyte currently used on almost all cars. electrical.
Source: The capital
