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Fire Extinguisher for EV fire?

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From reading the fire thread a main battery fire will require lots of water. Far more than any extinguisher can supply. The only extinguisher that would be useful would be one for a 12V battery or electrical system fire.
 
For 20 years I have had fire extinguishers in my gas cars, and an extinguisher and detector in my garage. I too would be interested in thoughts on what, if anything, should be different for EVs. (After 20 years my extinguishers probably need replacing anyway!)
 
For 20 years I have had fire extinguishers in my gas cars, and an extinguisher and detector in my garage. I too would be interested in thoughts on what, if anything, should be different for EVs. (After 20 years my extinguishers probably need replacing anyway!)

Well, at its most basic, you want an extinguisher for an electrical fire, as opposed to an extinguisher for an oil fire. That's a fairly standard difference, and it's the reason they sell different extinguishers for kitchens (grease fire expected) rather than the rest of the house (expected to be electrical or wood).
 
Well i did not park my gasoline car in the garage. Did not fill it up either. So if something goes wrong is it stupid tomhabe a detector and soemthing tomhabe a chance to estingiush a fire? Not sure why people add strange comments that is not very helpful...
 
Anyone know how well this works on electrical fires?

Engineering students use sound waves to put out fires
[video]https://youtu.be/uPVQMZ4ikvM[/video]

NM, answered my own question:
The two students acknowledge that there is still a lot of work to do before they will know if their extinguisher might be useful for fighting real fires—thus far, it has only been tested on small alcohol flames. At issue is whether it can be used on bigger fires, and because it does not have a coolant, whether fires that go out, because the material will still be hot, will reignite once the sound waves cease.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-03-students.html#jCp
 
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I have a Halon extinguisher tank hanging from my ceiling with a temp sensor, much like the typical sprinkler heads you see in offices and homes. Yes, I am VERY paranoid of fire. Would that be effective if my Miss decided to light up? Unlikely as that may be.

And I am actually asking seriously....
 
I have a Halon extinguisher tank hanging from my ceiling with a temp sensor, much like the typical sprinkler heads you see in offices and homes. Yes, I am VERY paranoid of fire. Would that be effective if my Miss decided to light up? Unlikely as that may be.

And I am actually asking seriously....


The FAA highlighted lithium-ion problems and strategies for dealing with lithium battery fires in a Safety Alert for Operators (SAFO 09013). The FAA recommends: “Utilize a Halon, Halon replacement or water fire extinguisher to prevent the spread of the fire to adjacent battery cells and materials. Pour water, or other non-alcoholic liquid, from any available source over the cells immediately after knockdown or extinguishment of the fire.” The idea is to cool the battery to prevent re-ignition and propagation to other cells. While water reacts with lithium, the amount in the electrolyte is sufficiently small that it is worth the cooling effect of the water when trying to stop the runaway, according to the FAA.
Lithium-ion batteries are often encased in hard plastic shells, however, and this hampers efforts to drown a lithium fire with water, according to Tom Connolly, president of Industrial Fire Products, Mount Joy, Pa. Connolly’s company manufactures the Fire-Fighter Hot-Stop L fire-containment bag that Ship-it AOG distributes. The problem with water, he told AIN is that it can’t penetrate the plastic case around a battery and won’t put out the fire until the case fails fully, by which time the thermal runaway has proceeded nearly to conclusion, generating high temperatures. Placing the burning device in the Hot-Stop bag contains the thermal runaway safely as the fire burns itself out. The bag does not snuff out the fire, he pointed out. “From the flight crew standpoint, is it better to package a passenger’s device [into the containment bag] that is running hot or smoking or to begin pouring water on it that cannot penetrate the battery casing yet? The feedback we receive is that they want the item in question contained now, guesswork eliminated and the ‘event’ contained.”




It would need one heck of a Hot-Stop bag though.
Whatever you do, don't cut open the battery case because the batteries are designed to discharge fire in a certain way and opening the top of the case to pour water in (for example) just makes it worse.
 
I have a Halon extinguisher tank hanging from my ceiling with a temp sensor, much like the typical sprinkler heads you see in offices and homes. Yes, I am VERY paranoid of fire. Would that be effective if my Miss decided to light up? Unlikely as that may be.

And I am actually asking seriously....

Is your garage made of concrete blocks or cinder blocks as you call them? Just wondering because I know you frame houses over there with wood. If the partition walls between garage and home are made of wood perhaps you should replace them with concrete blocks.

In the UK garages that are attached to domestic property are made of concrete blocks or bricks as they are better at preventing fire spreading than wood. We went off wooden framed houses in 1666.
 
A much better design. No in CA, the only requirement that I am aware of is drywall between the garage and the living space. Not much peace of mind there.

Is your garage made of concrete blocks or cinder blocks as you call them? Just wondering because I know you frame houses over there with wood. If the partition walls between garage and home are made of wood perhaps you should replace them with concrete blocks.

In the UK garages that are attached to domestic property are made of concrete blocks or bricks as they are better at preventing fire spreading than wood. We went off wooden framed houses in 1666.
 
I keep a lot of lithium batteries both for my side business and hobby. As I understand it, lithium fires requires type D extinguishers which are expensive, and can not contain fire from large lithium stockpile. So the common consensus is to keep the standard type ABC extinguishers to stop the fire from spreading to surrounding non-lithium material, and just let the lithium burn itself out.

I believe California building code requires a 20 minutes fire proof isolation between garage and living area. Most garage access doors are metal and self closing for this reason.
 
News reports got me to thinking I should get a new extinguisher in my garage anyway... Mostly to protect my Tesla from fire caused by something non-Tesla. What is the best kind and what size? What's the best alarm system?
 
In case of Li-ion battery thermal runaway, it is not possible to stop it without removing oxygen for long period.
In case of garage it should be easy to close windows and garage door airtight. This will starve fire until fire department
arrives. It will be more effective than having two sprinklers in that garage.
The most important thing to preserve is house, not ruined vehicle.
Vehicle is not salvageable in any HV battery thermal runaway event.
There is not enough water output to put it out with water (pipes are too small). Sprinklers will stop fire from spreading.

Though here fire extinguisher is mandatory in every vehicle. 1kg, pretty small one, but it will put out engine compartment
or 12V electrical fires easily.
Also smoke detector is mandatory here. It's foolish not to have it in every reasonable room, incl garage.

PS: do not install fire extinguisher into frunk and also not under trunk floor.