There are over 16,000 electric vehicles currently registered in the state of North Carolina, we are even seeing them here at home in Moore County.
Although electric vehicles provide their owners with many benefits, if one of them catches on fire it can be very challenging for the fire department to extinguish.
I met with Chief Mike Cameron, Battalion Chief Trai Strowd, and the team at Southern Pines Fire & Rescue Thursday morning to talk specifically about these dangerous fires.
The reason that these fires can be difficult to fight is because the lithium batteries used in these vehicles will continue to burn even without oxygen making most conventional firefighting tactics such as water or foam basically useless.
Southern Pines Fire Department consistently evaluates challenges that they may find when in the field for any type of incident, including the possibilities of being faced with the new challenges found with electric vehicles.
Southern Pines Fire & Rescue recently purchased two Electric Vehicle Fire Blankets made by Bridgehill that may be utilized in the event of an electric vehicle fire. They added these blankets to the first out engines at both stations in June.
Just like the name sounds these very large blankets are made of fire-resistant material that is designed to literally wrap around a burning vehicle much like a blanket for a bed.
Although these blankets won't extinguish the burning battery, they dramatically slow the spread of the fire to the rest of the vehicle which does require oxygen to burn.
This can give officials time to do things like pull the still-burning vehicle away from a building or away from nearby cars and trucks in a parking lot protecting other property.
According to Chief Cameron applying the blanket gives them time to cool the burning vehicle down before removing the blanket to attack any remaining fire.
As a matter of fact the blanket is usually left in place even after the fire is extinguished and the vehicle is loaded onto a wrecker, because these type fires have been known to reignite days or even weeks later.
Pinebluff Fire & Rescue recently added these EV Fire Blankets to their department as well making them the second department in Moore County to adopt this technology.
Southern Pines and Pinebluff are the first fire departments in the county to add this technology to their responding engines, they will certainly not be the last.
07/25/24
To see a video of this new Blanket visit our Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/share/v/jqPegad74Xf9xDcX/?mibextid=qi2Omg
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