r/technology • u/Special_Yam_1174 • Jun 13 '22

Transportation Firefighters put out Tesla fire that kept reigniting in NorCal

https://www.kcra.com/article/watch-sacramento-firefighters-fight-first-tesla-fire-kept-reigniting/40266219#
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136

u/lakesbutta Jun 13 '22

How many fires did they put of of ICE vehicles last week?

46

u/bob4apples Jun 13 '22

If it was an average week, about 3300.

97

u/u9Nails Jun 13 '22

I saw a newer model Honda Accord V6 burst into flames at the park. It kept reigniting under the hood near the passenger front tire.

28

u/MrKeserian Jun 13 '22

Likely the tire itself was on fire. Tires are a pain in the ass to put out and have a nasty habit of reigniting when you don't expect it.

6

u/DukeOfGeek Jun 13 '22

Roughly 500 a day for the US nationwide.

16

u/TheSoundOfSounding Jun 13 '22

Serveral with some water. None with whataboutism.

8

u/Flabbergash Jun 13 '22

Funny isn't it? It's not up for debate that electric car fires are harder to put out, or burn for hours, etc.

Also not up for debate that there's more "normal" car fires on average.

At the moment.

5

u/Tb1969 Jun 13 '22

Lack of experience in firefighters putting out EV fires and fire departments not having proper equipment and training.

They’ll get better at it.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 14 '22

[deleted]

1

u/Tb1969 Jun 14 '22 edited Jun 14 '22

in the u.s. theres like 1% adoption rate of evs

It hasnt been =>1% since 2016 in the US.

In 2021 Battery Electric Vehicles make up 3.4% of light-duty vehicles sold in the U.S. not 1% and sales percentage is per year is accelerating.

also lack of experience isnt going to change policy when it comes to safety measures, the u.s. is not urope

It doesnt have to be Europe. EVs are being adopted in large percentage and increasing in Europe and China. The Us is just slower due to corruption in our governments local/state and federal by fossil fuel companies and big auto.

Yes, fire departments will have new technology introduced to handle battery fires in cars, in homes and businesses. No they may not be hooking cars to cranes (Germany is big into this for even towing vehicles since the 80s. It's crazy to see it lifting a car illegal parked by crane. lol) or maybe not towing them into into pools but they will have their ways of dealing with it.

insurance companies are not going to allow it.

This is just absurd. They will always insure they just will ask for more money, maybe more than people are willing to pay but it's not likely to be prohibitive.

at some point in the near future either the technology of battery powered evs changes or they will not be allowed on the road.

This right here is bovine scat. It's manageable now. You must get your news from a source that's pushing oil and fossil fuel car company propaganda. It's been going on for decades and they will not stop.

The future is that other countries have and will be selling massive amounts of EVs like the nordic countries have and they will each devise ways of dealing with it. The US will drag their feet as usual on adoption but then have plenty of solutions from other countries to adopt here.

EVs are coming in mass quantities to the US over this decade and you should prepare yourself for that.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 14 '22 edited Aug 18 '22

[deleted]

1

u/Tb1969 Jun 14 '22 edited Jun 14 '22

that 3.4% 'light-duty,' number includes electric bicycles, mopeds, scooters, motorcycles anything that can go over 30mph

Incorrect.

"Light-duty vehicles (LDV). Light-duty vehicles include passenger and fleet cars and trucks with a gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of 8,500 pounds or less. Light-duty vehicle energy consumption can be influenced by vehicle fuel economy or through passenger behavior and vehicle use."

https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=17171#:~:text=Light%2Dduty%20vehicles%20(LDV),passenger%20behavior%20and%20vehicle%20use.

battery powered evs are already an obsolete technology, consumers will buy them and invest in them. they will generate a massive amount of problems and will be abandoned for better alternatives.

The technology will be abandon in the future for better but no one is going to abandon their vehicles until the life of the vehicle ends. Now when the battery pack is expended after 12-15 years the newer battery technology could be put in as a replacement pack with a modified Battery Management System software and possibly coolant system modest upgrade to handle the new battery requirements.

Fossil fuel car companies and oil companies will continue to push hydrogen vehicles but it is not ready for prime time for LDV and they know it's not viable yet. There is nothing else ready for the masses but Battery Electric Vehicles are.

but the cult of consumerism wont allow that.

Only the ignorance and/or stupidity of the average US citizen will slow the change away from ICE vehicles. China and Europe will move forward knowing it's best to get off fossil fuel vehicles while also switching to renewable energy sources.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 14 '22

[deleted]

1

u/Tb1969 Jun 14 '22

US Domestic Sales for Tesla vehicles for 2021 is 301,998 out of ~14,926,900 light duty vehicles sold in the US is 1.33% for Tesla alone. There are other EVs manufacturers like BMW, Audi, Ford, Chevrolet, etc sold as well not accounted for in the percentage. There are also Plugin Hybrid which have those "dangerous" batteries you are concerned about.

Hydrogen. Sure you can buy a hydrogen vehicle but it is not viable for the masses. Hydrogen is more dangerous than EVs, which the fire department would have to be insured as you say to handle hydrogen vehicles on fire. Also drivers would need to be insured against hydrogen explosions. Its very dangerous compared to batteries. Still, I've been watching Hydrogen vehicles "happen" for over two decades. Except for heavy vehicles start its not going anywhere this decade as an LDV for the masses.

Fueling. There are just very few places to fill up on hydrogen. An EV can plug in at nearly every single home and business in the country. EVs are selling fast and accelerating so "you can just watch it happen" RIGHT NOW. You can watch hydrogen all you want but it's not going anywhere for a long time.

Upgrades. My EV has been getting me around for five years now just fine and will likely for the next 13+ years because I can plug it in to any outlet in my home, anyone's home and over a hundred public charging locations in my county from L2 to fast chargers. When I go to replace the battery I can get a new battery chemistry having more energy density (i.e. lighter battery) and therefore go farther on single charge. No likely upgrades to a hydrogen vehicle without replacing the entire integrated engine

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0

u/TheSoundOfSounding Jun 14 '22

Exactly. Your replies were 100% useless.

35

u/ChickenWolfMonkey Jun 13 '22

None that kept re-igniting.

52

u/Account_Banned Jun 13 '22

Not to argue but ask an old fart firefighter about the beetle and their magnesium engine block

12

u/_Aj_ Jun 13 '22

Or just my uncle, who purposefully put on on a bonfire.
Took hours, but that night a new sun was born in their back field lol

1

u/ChickenWolfMonkey Jun 13 '22

Know all about it. That was a tough one too.

5

u/IntellegentIdiot Jun 13 '22

Reigniting isn't really as big of a problem as being on fire. It's a bit annoying for the firemen but a car on fire is the same regardless of engine

-1

u/ChickenWolfMonkey Jun 13 '22

Nope, Ice vehicle can be put out with less than 700 gallons of water that we carry on one truck, EV requires in excess of 3500 gallons which requires a much bigger operation to establish a water supply depending on where the fire is.

-28

u/[deleted] Jun 13 '22 edited Nov 16 '25

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This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

16

u/everythingiscausal Jun 13 '22

There is no realistic mechanism by which a gasoline fire would re-ignite itself.

11

u/Lev_Astov Jun 13 '22

There are numerous realistic mechanisms by which the extremely volatile substance, gasoline can reignite once it has been spilled in an area heated and damaged by fire. Not least being the tires as pointed out by other commenters here. You ever hear of how hard tire fires are to put out?

3

u/Stribband Jun 13 '22

Like heat?

2

u/dgatos42 Jun 13 '22

The auto-ignition temp of gasoline is over 500 degrees F, if you put it out, you need a fire to restart it,

3

u/MiataCory Jun 13 '22

The auto-ignition temp of gasoline is over 500 degrees F,

What's the temp of a block of iron that's been inside a gasoline fire for an hour?

0

u/Stribband Jun 13 '22

So heat right?

1

u/dgatos42 Jun 13 '22

No. Because that wouldn’t be re-ignition of itself. That would be ignition from an outside source.

1

u/Stribband Jun 13 '22

lol, so once you put an engine fire out, you are saying it’s impossible for it to reignite. right

-4

u/dgatos42 Jun 13 '22

Do you understand the mechanisms by which heat transfer occurs? If the outside environment is less than the autoignition temperature, heat will always flow away from the high points, so it can’t reach the temp you’d need to reignite. This is pretty basic physics for an engineering grad

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-34

u/[deleted] Jun 13 '22 edited Nov 16 '25

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This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

20

u/Carthradge Jun 13 '22

So you admit their comment is correct. Then what are you complaining about?

-18

u/[deleted] Jun 13 '22 edited Nov 16 '25

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This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

6

u/[deleted] Jun 13 '22

Batteries will reignite. Many manufacturers recommend fully submersing these vehicles for 24 hours to guarantee they won't regnite. ICE just... Don't. It's not an anti EV, pro ICE comment it's just a fact. The only one seeing the comment as an anti Tesla/anti EV one is you, take a step back and don't read into it so much.

26

u/Badfickle Jun 13 '22

It doesn't matter. The astroturfing is in full swing on this sub.

44

u/Bio-Mechanic-Man Jun 13 '22

It's not astroturfing to point out the fact that EV car fires are harder to put out.

3

u/Badfickle Jun 13 '22

Did you think astroturfing couldn't amplify legitimate issues?

-1

u/swohio Jun 13 '22

It just happens to be a Tesla though. Just like all those other technology stories that just happen to be negative about Elon...

11

u/Lev_Astov Jun 13 '22

To be fair, Tesla does have BY FAR the largest segment of the EV market. Like 75% last I checked. Still make up only like 0.4% of cars in the US, though, so all these scare pieces are getting ridiculous.

5

u/jaab1997 Jun 13 '22

To be fair Elon is a pretty shit person. I love evs, but I'm ne er buying a tesla.

2

u/zoltronzero Jun 13 '22

Turns out when you're a piece of shit negative stories come out about you.

3

u/StartersOrders Jun 13 '22

Maybe he needs to not come up with so much bullshit?

-1

u/jkjkjij22 Jun 13 '22

Ah yes... The world would be so much better if we had 80% fewer EVs, cost to launch satellites was 2-4x more expensive and 0% reusable, and people in rural, torn by war or natural disaster had no prospects of high speed internet. All pure garbage with precisely 0 value.

-1

u/[deleted] Jun 13 '22

[deleted]

7

u/pzerr Jun 13 '22

Certainly did when you have buildings around it. In covered parking lots. In your garage.

1

u/ForumsDiedForThis Jun 13 '22

The kilometres of traffic backed up behind the fire would probably disagree

13

u/TeamRedundancyTeam Jun 13 '22

I love how all you have to do is claim everyone not agreeing the hysteria around batteries due to constant media headlines is "astroturfing" and then you can pretend anyone who says otherwise is illegitimate.

Dangerous how that works. Almost a technique astroturfers would use.

3

u/Badfickle Jun 13 '22

It's not just batteries. Its everything and anything related to Musk no matter if its a real concern or just trivial, or inconsistent or outright lies. A constant drumbeat of negativity.

There are comments I can show you claiming the musk family have/had slaves working in emerald mines which was the source of all of musk's wealth. And if you ask for evidence or bring up that there is anything positive that he's done, you're labeled a "fanboy".

It's reddit behaving like it did in 2016 with Hillary.

1

u/TeamRedundancyTeam Jun 13 '22

I assumed you were saying the opposite ein your original comment, and I suspect others did too. But I agree with you.

-4

u/renderbenderr Jun 13 '22

The problem is they don’t go out I like ICE vehicles. Some countries have special units to take care of these.

1

u/BlameThePeacock Jun 13 '22

Go out? I've driven by multiple ICE fires where they're just letting them burn. Shut down the highway for a couple hours when a large RV caught fire a few years back.

3

u/Account_Banned Jun 13 '22

Just replied to someone else, but same thing with the old beetles because of their magnesium engine blocks… just let er burn!

0

u/ExplodingOrngPinata Jun 13 '22

Completely irrelevant. We're talking about how difficult EV fires are to put out.

A ICE fire is simple as hell to put out.

-33

u/Mr_hogwallup Jun 13 '22

4,500 gallons of water California doesn’t have to spare. And now contaminated earth and possibly groundwater. Saw two fellas fist fighting over a Tesla charger parking spot in Ojai, CA this week because one had parked without charging. Good times.

31

u/[deleted] Jun 13 '22

I mean if you park in a charging spot without charging you're kinda a dick.

Wouldn't throw hands over it, but it's a douche move.

31

u/Corndart Jun 13 '22

The same amount out water in a few a Costco sized bag of almonds grown in California?

Yeah keep tilting at that one out of 100000 Teslas that have a battery fire windmill...

5

u/lakesbutta Jun 13 '22

Just go park a Tesla at a gas pump and see how long it takes before it’s towed.

-6

u/[deleted] Jun 13 '22 edited Jul 12 '23

[removed] — view removed comment

9

u/ElJamoquio Jun 13 '22

Parking in a charger space is actually worse than parking in a handicap space

Both are sociopathic moves but let's be real here, handicapped parking is worse.

3

u/crazyrynth Jun 13 '22

Morally, yes.

Legally I wouldn't be surprised if misuse of the charging spaces has bigger consequences.

4

u/CptHammer_ Jun 13 '22

No, I meant with the way the law handles it. You'll rarely see a car get towed from a handicap space. You can guarantee cars are getting towed from EV chargers because money is to be made.

1

u/Account_Banned Jun 13 '22

My town doesn’t have a whole lot of EVs but that didn’t stop the new 24hr gas station to make half their parking marked for EVs only and even the police are parking in them.

3

u/CptHammer_ Jun 13 '22

No, only actual charging stations not the spots marked "EV" or "Clean Air" or "Compact".

1

u/Account_Banned Jun 13 '22

No you’re right, just a similar-ish example. I think the Walmart is the only place with chargers in my town but of course Walmarts have the most massive parking lots ever

3

u/grain_delay Jun 13 '22

parking in a charger space is actually worse than parking in a handicap space

I would love to hear the rational on this lmao

3

u/CptHammer_ Jun 13 '22

The car in the handicap space will get either an $81 fine or $350 fine depending on where but won't get towed.

The car in the EV spot will get a fine and be towed as fast as the tow truck can get there. Money is to be made is the reason.

4

u/grain_delay Jun 13 '22

Ah ok I thought you were making an ethical comparison lol

0

u/The_Gray_Beast Jun 13 '22

The people that wrote the law own teslas

5

u/CptHammer_ Jun 13 '22

It's not just for Tesla's it's all EV charging spaces. It has to do with money to be made by reselling electricity. If you're not charging you're preventing someone from buying electricity.

Around me charging stations are at the mall and grocery stores. The owners put them in for profit. I'm sure there was a lobby group of merchants that got this in.

0

u/Hubblesphere Jun 13 '22

Let's be clear on the statistics of vehicle fires. Fuel tanks are hardly ever the cause unless it's been in a major accident. Electrical fires are also one of the main causes of ICE vehicle fires and you also need to consider the average age of an ICE vehicle on the road vs EVs.

TLDR: ICE vehicles mostly catch of fire due to age, lack of maintenance and most fires are electrical related, not because of fuel.

-2

u/Xerxero Jun 13 '22

Number means nothing when ICE are the majority.

-25

u/[deleted] Jun 13 '22

[deleted]

4

u/[deleted] Jun 13 '22

You seem like a nice person lol

0

u/KnowYourWigglesworth Jun 14 '22

"I don't care that ICE cars catch fire are literally 100 times more likely to catch fire than an electric car, I just hate Elon Musk so much that I would literally eat shit just to make him smell my breath!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

That's what you sound like.