When a fire breaks out in an underground car park, the situation can become very dangerous due to limited ventilation and the presence of toxic fumes. If the car concerned is fitted with a lithium batterythe situation can be even more complicated because the fire is harder to put out, requires huge amounts of water, training and specific equipment such as those we talk about in the special lithium battery fire extinguisher. THE video posted by EV Fire Safe that we show you below, retraces all the main phases of theintervention of the Prague fire brigadeintervened for the fire of a Jaguar I-Pace at level -1 of a car park.

ELECTRIC CAR FIRES REQUIRE SPECIFIC SOLUTIONS AND TRAINING

THE fires in underground car parks they represent an additional complication for electric and plug-in cars, as we discovered in the mega survey of SicurAUTO.it, the first in Italy. The difficulties and risks associated with working on an electric car require training that not all rescuers have, as revealed by a US survey. The intervention of Czech firefighters demonstrates that speed, coordination and the use of dedicated equipment are essential to control electric car fires in an underground car park. The EV Fire Safe Portal, a project funded by the Australian Department of Defense to disseminate the best practices on turn off electric car lights comment on the exemplary intervention of the firefighters in the video below.

JAGUAR I-PACE CATCHES FIRE AT LEVEL -1 OF A PRAGUE CAR PARK

A fire in an underground garage in Prague around midnight on May 4, 2023 forced the city’s fire brigade to intervene on a smoke-producing Jaguar I-Pace. The most accredited cause would seem to be the SUV’s lithium battery in thermal runaway. EV Fire Safe immediately reports that they were present at the scene of the accident more fire crews ready to support and change to those in action. Indeed, at level -1 of the underground car park, the intervention to put out the fire and control the thermal runaway required 2 hours of work and only after that the car could be extracted to street level. Even this last operation was not simple, but facilitated by the presence of a lift, used only after excluding the possibility that the lithium battery could re-ignite.

THE INTERVENTION OF THE VV.F TO EXTINGUISH THE FIRE OF THE ELECTRIC JAGUAR

The speed of the firefighters certainly limited the risks that the flames could also involve the structure and damage it. You can see on the video This:

• after reducing the flames and the temperature by using water and activating a ventilation system to evacuate the toxic gases, the VV.F began to cool the lithium battery with a spear which perforated its envelope to counter thermal runaway;
• with a thermal imager infrared they constantly monitored the temperature of the lithium battery, continuing to cool it even with a hose from inside the cabin;
• to facilitate operations underfloor battery coolingthey used a hydraulic spreader to lift the car and only then the car was prepared for extraction on trolleys. The use of trolleys is essential to avoid the rotation of the wheels and the risk that the battery may relight, recharged by the rotation of the motors. Normally, however, the use of trolleys is essential because the fire can block the wheels making it difficult to move an electric car;
• The electric car was thus pushed by hand by the VV.F e escorted to the exit of the car park using the elevator, continue to use a thermal camera for battery monitoring. This situation is considered very risky by EV Fire Safe but unavoidable, as there is no other way out.
• Once at road level, the electric car was towed into a quarantine container, which would be filled with water once it reached the place of isolation for the necessary time.

JAGUAR I-PACE FIRES: 9 CASES SINCE 2010

According to the data cited by EV Fire Safe, the cause of theJaguar I-Pace light it is currently under investigation and it is unknown if it was recharging at the time of the fire. It would still be the ninth case known worldwide since 2010including those who caught fire on the car transporter in the UK.