Lightning caught fire in Canada

[davehu]

I bet the early adopters for automobiles faced the same problem. I can hear it now "My horse never caught on fire"

but your lightning never @#!$@# in someone's driveway!

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[Basis0439]

When an ICE vehicle catches fire I'd guess it would totaled as well, no?

Yes. What are you trying to say?

 

[Danface]

but your lightning never @#!$@# in someone's driveway!

I did find a pile of AA batteries under the truck ... Hmmmm

 

[Danface]

Yes. What are you trying to say?

An ICE vehicle fire most likely means the vehicle is totaled.

I think the retired firefighter said it best, the newness of EV's and these types of events scare people and all I'm trying to say nothing is "safe". People are more comfortable with things we have experience.

 

[CD4TNF]

If anyone is curious. I found this Fire suppression report about extinguishing EV fires.


https://fsri.org/research-update/ex...ectiveness-control-electric-vehicle-fires-are

 

[Citizen0]

A vehicle fire is never a good thing and I always feel bad for the people involved (both the owners and the firefighters). My uncle is a firefighter and has seen some horrendous things from crashes. I _always_ thank firefighters whenever I see them. They have a very tough job, both physically and mentally.

I worry less about the number of EV fires and more about the percentage. I've never seen that reported. My gut instinct is EVs are much less likely to have a HVB fire, but battery chemistry and manufacturing can play a large role in potential problems. As long as the manufacturers stay on top of problems it should be fine (as far as any fire can be fine). My question is how do they know there was a manufacturing problem unless there are fires that cause an investigation? Recalls happen because problems are reported, not because of any kind of after-sell spot inspection.

In the last year I've seen 4 ICE fires. Once was in the Bahamas at Nassau on a cruise! We were in a little shop and I started smelling something, turned around and saw this out the doorway. All 4 tires eventually exploded. They are very loud and it is startling. It was a wild day considering it was our first time visiting Nassau, lol.

 

[Refactoringdr]

Two things. I've bookmarked this for when people mention EV fires:

And secondly, I'm a (small, rural, but with 15 miles of interstate highway) firefighter and I've put out many ICE car fires and have yet to see an EV fire. (Every time I remark how these gas car always catch on fire...no one seems to laugh). And I will tell you, an ICE car with a full tank of gas is hard to put out. We often let the gas burn off before we get real serious about extinguishing it.

Be safe out there.

 

[Timeless Epoch]

Two things. I've bookmarked this for when people mention EV fires:

And secondly, I'm a (small, rural, but with 15 miles of interstate highway) firefighter and I've put out many ICE car fires and have yet to see an EV fire. (Every time I remark how these gas car always catch on fire...no one seems to laugh). And I will tell you, an ICE car with a full tank of gas is hard to put out. We often let the gas burn off before we get real serious about extinguishing it.

Be safe out there.

Just to keep the conversation honest, what was the average age of a BEV and an ICE in 2018? Even today, the average age of a BEV is MUCH lower than that of an ICE. There is also the consideration of when and where a fire is likely for each.

Probably most importantly, the NTSB does not even attempt to track all vehicle fires. They are primarily interested in deaths and major accidents. Being as spontaneous fires for BEVs or ICE vehicles tends to result in neither, what does the data even mean? It really just shows the safety technology more readily available in a modern BEV is effective.

I'm not looking to paint a doom scenario for BEV's, I recently purchased one and clearly do not believe that. But I also think that people on both sides tend to exaggerate their claims. I don't think there is much out there in the way of age normalized data nor specific context related data. So we end up with a lot of anecdotal data that gets amplified as fact.

I also think that it is better for the long term viability of BEV's that we keep the conversation honest. I can tell you that personally I waited until just recently to purchase one because of all the pro AND con BS around BEV's. It seemed like a turf war that I frankly had no interest in getting involved with.

My $.02 anyway....

 

[Basis0439]

Just to be clear, there was no intention in my OP to imply that Lightnings are more prone to fires than ICEs. There was no intention to suggest that Lightnings are more likely to catch fire than any other EVs.

As an owner, my only intention of posting this was to spark a discussion over the cause of this particular fire, since I am certain we are all curious.

There should not be a debate about the general safety of EVs vs. ICE counterparts. The only fact, when it comes to fire between the two, is that it is far more difficult to extinguish a HVB fire than a ICE fire, and a HVB battery fire is far more intense than anything an ICE can produce in terms of sustained heat.

Anyway, it seems that somehow this discussion gravitated away from the cause, and into Lightning owners defending the position that EVs are safe when there was no argument made to suggest they weren't.

Back to regular programming!

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