SAN ANTONIO ā As part of recent federal cuts, the Department of Health and Human Services reportedly cut the Firefighter Health Program.
The team was researching firefightersā chemical exposures in electric vehicle fires, a first step to developing protective equipment.
While the local departments could not comment on the cuts themselves, they said itās crucial for the public to know why electric vehicle fires are so dangerous.
Bexar-Bulverde Fire Department Assistant Chief George Amen explained the dangers of an electric vehicle (EV) catching fire.
āThey burn so hot and so fast, itās hard for us to be able to extinguish those,ā Amen said.
Thermal runaway can happen with EV batteries, where the current flowing through a battery or overcharge causes the temperature to rise.
āTheyāve even said itās over 1,400 degrees when it goes in the thermal runaway. So a normal vehicle fire is not that,ā Amen said. āEven a structure fire, weāre looking at 1,000 degrees.ā
The amount of water needed is also far more than a normal car fire.
āI compare it to a fully involved structure fire,ā Amen said. āIt takes that many gallons to put out an EV fire if itās in thermal runaway, and weāre going to have to either shut down the roadway or isolate the area because all the smoke and fire has a lot of chemicals in it.ā
When firefighters walk up to any car, they immediately assess it.
āIām looking for those exhaust pipes, thereās no gas cap on this side, thereās a charging port, so I know this is an electric vehicle,ā Amen said.
If itās not on fire, the firefighters jump in and get the key fob out as quickly as possible.
āWe want to get these as far away as we can, so it doesnāt accidentally activate it and turn it on,ā Amen said.
If the car is on fire, the crews begin to solve a dangerous puzzle: Which of the many batteries is the culprit?
āI donāt know which battery area that the fire is in, now I can kind of isolate it with a thermal imaging camera,ā Amen said.
The camera tells firefighters the temperatures in the vehicle.
āWe get on scene, we turn it on and point it at the vehicle ... If itās hot it will show colors,ā Amen said.
They also have to be careful about cutting certain wires if they are trying to cut someone out of the vehicle.
āAll the guys know when they start cutting, theyāre looking, and if itās an orange line not to cut it because those are high voltage,ā Amen said.
If no one is in the vehicle and itās too risky for firefighters to get close, they use a big car fire blanket.
āItās like any fire blanket,ā Amen said. āSome people have them for a stove fire, but this one is big enough to cover an electrical vehicle to be able to smother out the fire or keep it in check while weāre waiting for it to cool down.ā
When fighting these fires, or even being near them, firefighters are at increased risk of injury or even getting cancer.
āThere has been documents in the US of firefighters, the chemicals it just affected their lungs and theyāre not able to continue to do their job,ā Amen said.
Thatās why heās hoping more research will be done to keep their gear ā and training ā top notch.
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