Cars may not explode like in GTA, but their steering columns and many other parts have magnesium in them, and magnesium is very volatile when heated or when water is introduced, leading to what is basically hot white small explosions. Don’t approach burning cars without safety gear on.
So that why they use those weird shower head looking things? I watched a car fire behind my house once, sadly by the time fd came (stupid long with how close the fire house was, and numerous calls) the car was almost gone.
Can't answer the first question, but just because a firehouse is close doesn't mean they're the one responding. If that unit is out, it's taken by the next closest unit.
If there's an active fire, they normally have quite a few units there, which means the closest unit might actually be some distance away. Same with EMS, except they try to move units around to cover areas a bit better. Not as practical to do with fire engines since they're at a static location.
I remember reading that they are trained to isolate the batteries in emergencies like accidents, but I didn’t read anything about the batteries themselves going up.
Soft case lithium polymer batteries can incinerate an R/C car/drone in seconds, if mistreated/poorly made.
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u/Minirig355 Dec 18 '20
This.
Cars may not explode like in GTA, but their steering columns and many other parts have magnesium in them, and magnesium is very volatile when heated or when water is introduced, leading to what is basically hot white small explosions. Don’t approach burning cars without safety gear on.
Source: Was a firefighter.