First Responders Unprepared for Electric Vehicle Fires: Report

Re:First Responders Unprepared for Electric Vehicle Fires: R... by imglorp on Monday November 23, 2020 @08:13PM (#25194079)

> first responder guide

This is exactly what I'm complaining about. Every car is different. Volunteers have so many trainings to take, it's unreasonable to ask them to take a whole training for EVERY MODEL CAR on the road. There should be a simple, standard, HV and pyro cutoff control, standard on ALL cars, that can be actuated without a hydraulic shear. Put it in the wheel well or behind a gascap-like door.

Imagine you are a civilian or first responder and want to help people out of a car and you don't have a hydraulic shear or hundreds of hours of model-specific training? This is an everyday usecase.

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Re:First Responders Unprepared for Electric Vehicle Fires: R... by mjevans on Tuesday November 24, 2020 @01:27AM (#25195883)

I imagine the best placement is probably just about the middle of the dashboard, between where any airbags should go off. It would be something that could be jabbed by a blunt pole of any kind (the butt of a fireaxe pole for example) which would dislodge a connection between two points. That shouldn't be the main bus, but rather supply the power MOSFETs with the go bias current.

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Re:First Responders Unprepared for Electric Vehicle Fires: R... by craftinator on Tuesday November 24, 2020 @10:36AM (#25199378)

This sounds great in theory, and would work well until your 8 year old jabs a pen in there while you're going 70 on the freeway. There are two completely different scenarios you have to optimize for, and their optimizations really compete with eachother; ease of access is a benefit in one, and a danger in the other.

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Re:First Responders Unprepared for Electric Vehicle Fires: R... by gregd on Monday November 23, 2020 @08:26PM (#25194172)

Training on fire suppression and extrication techniques for cars doesn't take THAT much training. Most techniques would be standard across the board, with a few exceptions for electric vehicles.

Additionally, never underestimate the hours of training that most firefighters go through anyway and get this, they live for that stuff.

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Re:First Responders Unprepared for Electric Vehicle Fires: R... by renewiltord on Monday November 23, 2020 @09:14PM (#25194535)

Hmm, so it's not like the movies? You don't dial back in to a central command center where they call the guy who tells you to cut the red wire or not? Makes sense, I guess. Just interesting. It seems like there's value in centralization. Can't be two Teslas on fire at the same time in SF.

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Re:First Responders Unprepared for Electric Vehicle Fires: R... by trevyn on Tuesday November 24, 2020 @06:04PM (#25204070)

Business opportunity?

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Re:First Responders Unprepared for Electric Vehicle Fires: R... by renewiltord on Tuesday November 24, 2020 @09:45PM (#25205477)

You know, perhaps it is.

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