My Lightning burned to the ground

[chl]

I know the LVB is a perpetual annoyance for many people due to the moronic logic behind charging it. But this incident is not an LVB issue. That little LVB is not capable of rapidly incinerating the entire truck as we're seeing here. Based on the OP's description of the sound, timing, and the blazing inferno, this is quite clearly an HVB fire that quickly went into thermal runaway.

Feel free to continue being annoyed about the LVB. But stop trying to connect dots that do not connect to facilitate being annoyed about it.

Nobody knows for sure yet what caused this fire to start, the origin. You could be right that it will ultimately be determined it was an HVB failure.

The initial pop could have been a 12v battery short rupture/explosion, the other pops could have been the fuses in the HVB as their wires shorted out, OR all the pops could have been from the HVB fuses blowing due to a catastrophic HVB failure.

But, just to be clear, origin at the 12v battery is also a possibility.

1) this was not the "little" OEM AGM lead-acid 12v battery, it was an Ohmmu Lithium battery - LITHIUM BATTERY - and from seeing much smaller lithium batteries fail and explode into flame (lots of YouTube videos of that), one can understand how bad it could be if the Ohmmu failed, how intensely it could burn, and how fast it could spread to the rest of the truck.

2) people often underestimate how fast things burn to the ground once a fire is initiated. A house can be completely engulfed in flames in as little as 3 minutes, and that is without any lithium being involved.

3) once a fire spreads to the HVB wiring, which is all the orange wiring near the 12v battery compartment, up to the charge port DC pins, to the DC-DC converter which is under the Frunk floor, etc., the HVB fuses would pop from short circuiting, and as the fire spreads and heats up the HVB, the HVB lithium could become involved in the fire very quickly, there would be no cooling going on.

4) in the first picture there is a lot of burning at the front of the vehicle and the back, which doesn't really indicate one way or the other where the fire started.

5) the OP said the battery temp was normal - if this were a short in the HVB due to misalligned electrodes, like in the recall that affected around 1,000 Lightnings, I think there should have been indications of the HVB temperature being elevated as it began melting internal parts, based on what Ford said about that issue anyway.

6) regarding ICE vehicles and fires involving the 12v battery, remember the Ford ignition fires and recall? Well, to refresh everyone's memory, read about it here:

On April 25, 1996, Ford Motor Company announced it would conduct one of the largest recalls for a safety-related defect in the history of the U.S. Department of Transportation. The recall covered approximately 7,900,000 Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury vehicles in the U.S. from model year 1988 through 1993 for a defect in the ignition switch causing the cars to catch ablaze spontaneously (NHTSA recall number 96V-071). The recall occurred after years of concealment by Ford that saw parked Fords go up in flames across the country when the ignition switch developed an internal short circuit, overheated and caused the surrounding material to catch on fire. Some of the vehicles were parked in garages and burned houses when they ignited.

https://www.autosafety.org/ford-ignition-switch-fires/

So no one should underestimate the potential of a 12v Ohmmu Lithium battery to cause a catastrophic fire.

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[Jim Lewis]

There are much greater things to worry about !!

Probably the same psychology behind the fear of shark attacks is involved. The risk is very small, but the fear of the outcome is very great.

 

[Maxx]

This is the key. Relax and enjoy the truck. Park & charge it, where it is most convenient.

There are much greater things to worry about !!

Yup, like a pop up door handle. I love my Lightning traditional door handle.

 

[Maxx]

Probably the same psychology behind the fear of shark attacks is involved. The risk is very small, but the fear of the outcome is very great.

If ford knows what happened and does not share, they contribute to that fear with uncertainty we all have. I have no option to park the truck somewhere safe. It is parked right next to my house and next to two ICE and my neighbor’s house. With a fire like this, several houses could be in flames before anyone can get to it.

We all need the illusion of control to feel at peace. If I know it was 12V Lithium Ion, I won’t use it. If I know it was high SOC condition, I minimize the time at those SOCs. If I know it was a random cell and I can’t do anything about it, at least I won’t worry about looking for an information that is not there.

 

[RickLightning]

Everyone should submerge their truck in firefighting foam each night for safety.

 

[mr.Magoo]

If ford knows what happened and does not share, they contribute to that fear with uncertainty we all have.

We all do not have that fear.

Unless it's 100% clear that it's not a Ford issue I doubt they'll ever say anything. Admitting to anything is opening a whole can of worms when it comes to liability and lawsuits, so that ain't happening.

 

[Wattsgas]

We all do not have that fear.

Unless it's 100% clear that it's not a Ford issue I doubt they'll ever say anything. Admitting to anything is opening a whole can of worms when it comes to liability and lawsuits, so that ain't happening.

Well when we got the misaligned electrode recall, they told us not to charge above 80%. Then they issued a over the air update that had the vehicle charge to 100%. Telling us that if we did charge to 100% the vehicle could catch on fire.

When we got the park pin may not engage and vehicle may roll away, we got there will be an over the air update to remedy sometime in the next quarter. Didn't even tell us to engage the parking brake when exiting the vehicle. Which reminds me of the recall on my 1977 F250 Supercab. The tranmission may pop out of park. They gave me a sticker to put on the visor.

 

[WXman]

1) That was a recall of 950 trucks.
2) That was a staged video by a first responder, posted a year ago.
3) You said FAR more. Please elaborate. You seem to have information.

We all know that the OEs recall AS FEW of a sample as they can possibly get away with, but 99% of the time the issue affects a much larger number. That's just how it works. Look at Toyota...they recalled a small sample of 3.5 engines in Tundras....then had to recall more...and info suggests that 2025 and 2026 models are still blowing up. The OEs want to keep their losses as small as they can and hope for the best.

My Lightning is one of the last ones that came off the assembly line. Latest and greatest. And I still don't fully trust it. Shortly after bringing it home, I bought and installed a heat detector in the garage near where the truck charges.

 

[NW Ontario Ford Lightning]

Nice post with informative, aggregated data.

I can't help but note the 60-foot walk from family home to family cars in the famed Ontario Winter. Frankly, I can imagine some teenager curses freezing in the brisk February air

If ya can't take the weather, better get out of NW Ontario lol.
The car port had only one place that fit with the lay of the property, so it ended up where it is. I wanted to build a smaller car port right on one end of the house, for my wife, but she didn't approve of the way this would make the house look, even though it made a covered short few steps from the kitchen to the car. So this is the way it is.

I perfer the 60-feet stroll rather than brushing snow and scraping ice all winter, so in the car port is fine. With the EV charger mounted to a post of the car port, it is always free of snow, easy to access, takes a few seconds to plug in and un plug.
As to teenagers...our kids have their own kids these days...though not teenagers yet. lol.

 

[RickLightning]

We all know that the OEs recall AS FEW of a sample as they can possibly get away with, but 99% of the time the issue affects a much larger number. That's just how it works. Look at Toyota...they recalled a small sample of 3.5 engines in Tundras....then had to recall more...and info suggests that 2025 and 2026 models are still blowing up. The OEs want to keep their losses as small as they can and hope for the best.

My Lightning is one of the last ones that came off the assembly line. Latest and greatest. And I still don't fully trust it. Shortly after bringing it home, I bought and installed a heat detector in the garage near where the truck charges.

Prudent step. As I said I also put a temp sensor in my garage.

Being afraid and parking away from structures is not.

 

[Henry Ford]

We all need the illusion of control to feel at peace.

This is not a universal human trait. With a basic understanding of statistics and probably, we can feel at peace riding on an airplane or parking our EV indoors.

 

[ClevelandBeemer]

This is not a universal human trait. With a basic understanding of statistics and probably, we can feel at peace riding on an airplane or parking our EV indoors.

Odds of fatal commercial plane crash 1 in 11 million.

Odds of an EV fire 4-25 in 100,000. (Depending on the source)

A basic understanding of statistics indicates this is very relevant. Furthermore EV fires typically burn for hours. So for EV owners weighing the risk to their spouse, children, and pets, to me it’s pretty understandable if they choose to park outside.

 

[RickLightning]

Odds of fatal commercial plane crash 1 in 11 million.

Odds of an EV fire 4-25 in 100,000. (Depending on the source)

A basic understanding of statistics indicates this is very relevant. Furthermore EV fires typically burn for hours. So for EV owners weighing the risk to their spouse, children, and pets, to me it’s pretty understandable if they choose to park outside.

Bit since ICE vehicles are magnitudes more likely to catch fire, nothing should be parked in the garage...

 

[Maxx]

This is not a universal human trait. With a basic understanding of statistics and probably, we can feel at peace riding on an airplane or parking our EV indoors.

I'm about as worried my truck will catch as I am all my cordless tool batteries will.

Rivian R1T (original) had a flashlight in the door with one 2170 battery cell in it. Its battery pack had 7776 cells in it. An R1T owner should be 7776 times more worried about the pack catching on fire than they are about their flashlight.

 

[Runaway Tractor]

Odds of fatal commercial plane crash 1 in 11 million.

Odds of an EV fire 4-25 in 100,000. (Depending on the source)

A basic understanding of statistics indicates this is very relevant. Furthermore EV fires typically burn for hours. So for EV owners weighing the risk to their spouse, children, and pets, to me it’s pretty understandable if they choose to park outside.

There is something significant missing from your statistics and logic...

Furthermore EV fires typically burn for hours. So for EV owners weighing the risk to their spouse, children, and pets, to me it’s pretty understandable if they choose to park outside.

Apparently you've never seen a vehicle of any kind catch fire. The EV "burning for hours" is irrelevant. Any vehicle catching on fire in a garage presents the exact same danger to the home occupants. The hours after doesn't matter. The vehicle is on fire, and therefore so is your house. Doesn't matter if it is an F150 Lightning or a Honda Civic.

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