This week’s Extra Alarm insights come to us from Captain Patrick Durham with the Troy (Michigan) Fire Department. Captain Durham addresses the issues firefighters face when dealing with electric vehicle (EV) fires, particularly the challenges posed by thermal runaway events in lithium-ion batteries. Durham covers various methods and tools for extinguishing EV fires, such as firefighting foam, Class D extinguishers, pancake and piercing nozzles, and fire blankets, and ultimately concludes that the best strategy is to let the battery burn out, a process that takes about an hour.
