DEARBORN, Mich. — New video footage of a fireplace involving a Ford F-150 Lightning this yr highlights a rising concern round electrical autos: risky fires from the batteries that energy them.
The beforehand unreleased footage, which CNBC obtained by way of Michigan’s Freedom of Information Act from the Dearborn Police Department, exhibits smoke billowing from three tightly packed electrical pickups in a Ford Motor holding lot in Dearborn, Michigan.
Moments later, flames shoot a number of ft above the autos, which have been unoccupied. It wasn’t clear based mostly on public paperwork and police video how lengthy the fires burned. Experts say EV fires can take hours, reasonably than minutes, to extinguish.
EV fires have develop into a rising concern as automakers push to extend gross sales of electrical autos and meet tightening emissions requirements.
The Biden administration has set a goal for half of recent autos offered within the U.S. by 2030 to be electrical. Automakers are spending billions of {dollars} to affect their lineups. However, there’s been little to no dialogue about first responder coaching for when the autos catch hearth, whether or not as a consequence of a malfunction or, extra generally, a crash.
An electrical Ford F-150 Lightning caught hearth on Feb. 4, 2023 as a consequence of a battery situation traced again to one of many automaker’s suppliers. The blaze unfold to a few electrical pickups in a holding lot of Ford’s in Dearborn, Michigan.
Dearborn Police Department
The Feb. 4 holding lot hearth at Ford’s Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Dearborn prompted the corporate to rapidly halt manufacturing of the brand new pickup for 5 weeks. The automaker additionally recalled 18 of the autos, which Ford has likened to the Model T by way of significance to the corporate.
Ford recognized the foundation trigger as associated to battery cell manufacturing made by provider, SK On.
Police officers responding to the blaze described the autos as being “engulfed in flames” and might be heard on video worrying that the autos may “blow up.” Lithium-ion batteries, generally utilized in EVs, might be risky and intensely tough to place out as soon as on hearth.
“We’re not putting this f—er out. Look at it,” mentioned one responding officer in the course of the February F-150 Lightning hearth.
First responders might be heard on video expressing concern about how a lot water is required to place out EV fires and whether or not a particular foam can be required. They additionally questioned the viability and security of electrical autos.
“They have to put like a whole f—ing lake on it to put them out,” the identical officer mentioned in the course of the Feb. 4 occasion.
An electrical Ford F-150 Lightning caught hearth on Feb. 4, 2023 as a consequence of a battery situation traced again to one of many automaker’s suppliers. The blaze unfold to a few electrical pickups in a holding lot of Ford’s in Dearborn, Michigan.
Dearborn Police Department
The footage obtained by CNBC totaled about two hours of video, together with overlapping footage, from 17 police bodycams and automobile dashcams between 3:36 p.m. and 4:22 p.m. ET, in keeping with time stamps on the bodycam movies.
Photos obtained from Dearborn Police by way of a separate Michigan FOIA request present the aftermath of the blaze. One of the three autos is barely recognizable, with its physique practically melted all the way down to the bottom. The two neighboring autos have been additionally closely broken.
“There was only one [vehicle on fire] when we got here. They’re catching. It’s these frickin’ batteries,” that very same responding officer mentioned, in keeping with the footage.
The F-150 Lightning hearth occurred whereas the automobile was charging in a holding lot throughout a pre-delivery high quality verify and was attributable to an inner brief circuit as a consequence of a producing situation when cells within the battery have been at a excessive state of cost, in keeping with public paperwork related to the recall. Ford mentioned engineers decided there was no proof of a charging fault.
“Together with SK On, we confirmed the root causes and swiftly implemented quality actions,” Ford mentioned in a press release to CNBC. “The Rouge Electric Vehicle Center has been back up and running since March 13 and is back to full production and shipping vehicles to customers.”
The hearth added to ongoing high quality and execution points which have plagued the automaker because it makes an attempt to restructure its enterprise and place itself higher for EVs.
An electrical Ford F-150 Lightning caught hearth on Feb. 4, 2023 as a consequence of a battery situation traced again to one of many automaker’s suppliers. The blaze unfold to a few electrical pickups in a holding lot of Ford’s in Dearborn, Michigan.
Dearborn Police Department
Growing concern
Vehicle fires should not new. They usually happen in conventional autos with inner combustion engines. But the fires that may end result from EVs such because the F-150 Lightning and their batteries are more and more worrying for first responders throughout the nation, partially as a result of they contain a series response between battery cells often called thermal runaway.
Such fires are also a rising drawback for automakers who may lose the momentum they’ve constructed with automobile patrons and climate-conscious lawmakers if the chance continues shaking public confidence within the know-how.
Fires involving EV batteries can burn hotter and longer and require new strategies to extinguish.
“This is a big issue globally,” mentioned Michael O’Brian, board member of the International Fire Chiefs Association, who leads hearth and life security. “We need to better understand what the best processes are through testing and evaluation with real firefighters.”
EVs are powered by a sequence of battery cells inside an hermetic pack that is designed to forestall any substances from passing in or out. The packs are also primarily constructed into the underbodies or frames of the autos, a spot that may be tough for first responders to achieve. And even when they may simply entry the cells, the “fire” is definitely a chemical response and far harder to deal with than a conventional gasoline hearth.
“You’re now dealing with a vehicle that doesn’t work like anything else you’ve been taught,” mentioned David Dalrymple, a volunteer firefighter in New Jersey who owns a primary response coaching and consulting enterprise known as RoadWay Rescue. “It’s a totally different animal. … The primary goal is to cool it down to take away that chemical reaction.”
Dalrymple, who additionally serves on a Society of Automotive Engineers committee specializing in EV hearth points and requirements, famous another nations enable first responders to lookup what hazardous supplies are in a automobile based mostly on the license plate. An analogous system might be helpful within the U.S., he mentioned.
A 2019 Chevrolet Bolt EV caught hearth at a house in Cherokee County, Georgia on Sept. 13, 2021, in keeping with the native hearth division.
Cherokee County Fire Department
Experts are nonetheless attempting to find out EV hearth incident charges; the information is tough to gather from disparate hearth departments. Vehicle fires involving inner combustion engines are much more frequent than EVs, nonetheless specialists anticipate that to repeatedly even out as extra electrified autos are offered.
Problems with plug-in autos that use such batteries have led automakers together with Ford, General Motors, Hyundai and Porsche to recall fashions. GM from 2020 to 2021 needed to recall all of its electrical Chevrolet Bolt fashions constructed as much as that time as a consequence of a battery situation that resulted in a number of reported fires.
As a end result, GM expanded an ongoing nationwide program to teach public security, hearth and emergency service suppliers on how you can most successfully deal with emergency conditions involving electrical autos.
The state of Virginia has taken it upon itself to coach firefighters. A invoice that requires them to finish a coaching program concerning the danger of electrical automobile fires handed unanimously this yr.
Trial by hearth
Firefighters more and more are going through the challenges created by EV fires. This is made extra difficult by what some specialists say is an absence of laws and requirements, which permits automakers to do as they like concerning the design and rollout of EVs.
For greater than a century, first responders have fairly simply extinguished automobile engine fires by popping the hood and drowning the realm in water. That playbook would not work with EVs.
An electrical Ford F-150 Lightning caught hearth on Feb. 4, 2023 as a consequence of a battery situation traced again to one of many automaker’s suppliers. The blaze unfold to a few electrical pickups in a holding lot of Ford’s in Dearborn, Michigan.
Dearborn Police Department
Each automobile is exclusive and should require totally different strategies to extinguish, which implies there aren’t any set requirements for placing out an EV hearth.
Current finest practices for an EV hearth, relying on who you converse with, embrace submerging the autos in water, piercing the battery pack and inundating it with water, disabling a automobile’s 12-volt circuit, or just letting the fireplace burn till it is out, emitting chemical toxins into the air.
O’Brian, a hearth chief in suburban Brighton outdoors of Detroit, mentioned the larger the battery, the upper the priority for first responders. He additionally famous that new battery vegetation to supply the cells for the autos typically value billions of {dollars}, highlighting what he noticed as comparatively little funding being directed to the coaching of fireside departments.
“I continue to keep advocating that both state and federal government needs to truly invest within the fire service on this topic for training, best practices, lab time,” O’Brian mentioned. “It’s as simple as what’s the best way to turn up your efforts when exposed to lithium-ion off-gassing” when the autos catch hearth.
O’Brian mentioned as soon as the thermal runaway begins there’s actually no placing the fireplace out except you cease the chain response of lithium-ion cells from overheating.
It’s unclear what number of, if any, folks have died from an electrical automobile spontaneously catching hearth. There have been experiences of deadly fires following crashes, however many occasions EVs have caught hearth when charging and unoccupied.
There’s additionally the chance of reignition: Lithium-ion battery fires can re-engage weeks later with little to no warning. The Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District responded to such an incident final yr involving a Tesla that had been in an accident three weeks prior.
William Lerner, an impartial security tech inventor and delegate for the International Organization for Standardization, mentioned finest practices would name for a three-week monitoring interval after a hearth, with specific consideration in the course of the first 24 hours.
Lerner, who works intently with first responders and their trainers, expressed concern that first responders could not have the suitable private safety and security gear to deal with the fires. He mentioned the gear used for a conventional automobile hearth could not suffice.
“The whole way of dealing with this is completely different,” he mentioned. “The only similarities are they have four wheels, and they look like cars. It’s a completely different product, and that’s the problem.”
Ford, in its Emergency Response Guide for the 2022 Lightning, broadly particulars some points concerning the potential for reignition within the occasion of a fireplace and suggests storing the automobile outdoors or not less than 50 ft away from different objects. It doesn’t supply an answer for placing out a battery hearth aside from “LARGE amounts of water” or utilizing a “Class ABC powder-type extinguisher to contain and smother the flames.”
Ford mentioned the corporate “took part in an information-sharing session on how to handle battery fires in summer 2022 with members of the Dearborn fire department,” which responded to the blaze in February.
An electrical Ford F-150 Lightning caught hearth on Feb. 4, 2023 as a consequence of a battery situation traced again to one of many automaker’s suppliers. The blaze unfold to a few electrical pickups in a holding lot of Ford’s in Dearborn, Michigan.
Dearborn Police Department
“We continue to look at opportunities to help educate on this topic,” the automaker mentioned.
Dearborn Police Chief Joseph Murray declined to remark concerning the Feb. 4 F-150 Lightning hearth or any coaching his division has achieved for EVs.
Experts say such coaching for first responders is a begin, but it surely must be always up to date and rolled out. There are additionally issues concerning the manpower and talent of fireside departments to deal with EV fires, in keeping with a number of officers. Not to say the dire circumstances they could be coping with involving automobile occupants, that are their first precedence.
“When you have an EV fire, you don’t have the time to stop and look through an emergency response guide or to call, you know, GM, or methodically figure out is it a 2012 Tesla or 2022,” Lerner mentioned. “You’ve got human beings in there that can die. So, you may not have one second to waste in order to get these human beings out.”
— CNBC’s Lora Kolodny contributed to this report.
Source: www.cnbc.com”