[ad_1]
Electric cars rarely burn out, but once they do, the challenges are great. Firefighter Tommy Carnebo is calling for increased training efforts to report hazards. “There is a great deal of ignorance,” he says.
Electric cars not only burn longer than normal cars, but they can also be turned on again. Image of a fire outside the Tesla electric car manufacturer’s Malmö facility in October.
So far this year, almost 67,000 new rechargeable cars have started on Swedish roads, according to statistics from Bil Sweden, and the number is increasing rapidly.
Of all the newly registered cars in October, 36 percent were rechargeable, the highest proportion to date in a single month. Compared to last year, the number of rechargeable cars has increased by 113 percent.
But with new fuels, new challenges also arise. If an electric car battery is affected in a collision or fire, the consequences can be serious.
– Statistics suggest that electric cars are less common than oil cars, but they burn differently, says Tommy Carnebo, a firefighter with the Södertörn fire protection association.
And once the accident has occurred, it poses great challenges for the rescue service.
– Normally we put out a car fire in 15-20 minutes, but with electric cars we rarely come for 40 minutes and it can also take longer. If the battery has been involved in the fire, there is also an imminent risk that it will reignite multiple times, says Tommy Carnebo.
– The record is in the United States, where an electric car was turned on four times in 48 hours.
Toxic gas is also formed when the battery burns, which is dangerous to inhale both for the rescue service and the general public in the vicinity.
The risk of re-starting means that electric cars must be quarantined after accidents. This can also apply if the car has not started to burn, as the battery can be damaged even though it is not visible, says Tommy Carnebo.
– Otherwise, there is a risk that a workshop will pick it up after a collision and then the whole workshop will burn out.
The quarantine site must be protected from the elements and wind, and there must be no flammability within a radius of at least five meters, preferably ten, around the vehicle. The car will stay there for two weeks.
For emergency services personnel on site, it can often be a great challenge to assess how the battery is working. Is it safe enough to send the car to a workshop or should it be quarantined?
Tommy Carnebo points out that he personally sees many benefits from the entry of electric cars into society, but that knowledge about them is also required.
– There is a great lack of knowledge, unfortunately, both in the rescue services and among the workshops, the lifeguards and those who sell the cars.
He wants to see more national guidelines and recommendations on the handling of electric cars and calls for greater interest from politicians.
– It is the politicians who decide that we should have these vehicles in society and what bonuses it should give. But we are not the politicians who will take care of them when the accident happens, we are. So we must be part of the debate, he says and continues:
– I have lectured entire foreign governments on this, but not a single Swedish politician has wanted to listen to me. I think it’s remarkable.
