morcantium

morcantium t1_iufcjbc wrote

I agree, it's not true about water acting like gasoline with lithium fires. But it is true they are hard to extinguish. Water doesn't make a lithium fire worse but neither will it extinguish the fire. You've got to spray water on the batteries for up to 90 minutes until the batteries burn out to keep the area cooled off. Or just let it burn and keep people away if that's a feasible option. An electric car can take 20,000 gallons of water (or more) before the fire goes out depending on battery size. They've now got fire blankets designed to contain these fires to help protect surrounding vehicles/buildings but good luck getting close enough to fit one around a burning vehicle. Source: I just went on a firefighters safety course on electric car fires.

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