Description
Why do Electric Cars with lithium-ion batteries pose a risk?
The central risk with lithium-ion batteries is fire. The batteries are unlikely to catch fire – but they can, through faults inside the battery, or from external damage. And when they do catch fire, the consequences can be serious.
What happens when a lithium-ion battery catches fire?
Once alight, lithium-ion battery fires are very hard to extinguish. Common fire suppressants don’t work and the fire can burn very fiercely. In some circumstances, the battery can explode. If you have a problem with one cell, it can start spreading.This unstoppable fire is called “thermal runaway”. Water may assist with absorbing heat from some small fires, but it reacts dramatically with lithium – making it a bad decision to go directly on fires.Lithium-ion fires also don’t burn cleanly, batteries can vent toxic gases into the surrounding area. It’s not always clear what these gases will be. For these reasons, some fire services have a code of not intervening in lithium-ion battery fires: they’re unlikely to suppress them because the risk to firefighters is too high.Instead, they wait for the reaction to finish, and protect the surrounding environment.
How it works
Cover the Car Fire Isolator Blanket over the burning vehicle. This immediately isolates the flames and fumes. As a result, the fire will soon be controlled due to lack of oxygen. The lithium-ion batteries will continue to burn even without oxygen in electric vehicles. It is advised to leave the fire blanket on when transporting electric vehicles on a recovery truck.
CERTIFIED
All our blankets are EV battery certified – Verification to EN13501-1:2018 (1600c)
Standard fire blankets are not EV battery approved.
