Parking EVs indoors

[Jstpssng]

Two of us tried to knock this down with fire extinguishers today, before flames started showing through the hood. Without popping the hood it was a futile effort, and I wasn’t about to try that.
Finally the store clerk who had called the FD told us they said to leave it.

Amazingly, as I was taking this picture people were still pulling in and trying to get gas.

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

What is (was) it?

 

[bdhsfz6]

The apartment building next door to my Brother's caught fire from a faulty e-bike battery. The owner was charging it on his deck when it ignited. The flames travelled up the vinyl siding to the second floor. It eventually burned the roof off the building before the fire company extinguished it:

As a result, the apartment complex banned electric bikes in all apartments.

 

[Jstpssng]

What is (was) it?

Kia, I believe

 

[Oaktree]

The apartment building next door to my Brother's caught fire from a faulty e-bike battery. The owner was charging it on his deck when it ignited. The flames travelled up the vinyl siding to the second floor. It eventually burned the roof off the building before the fire company extinguished it:



As a result, the apartment complex banned electric bikes in all apartments.

I wonder how many similar fires are caused by people using gas grills on apartment building porches.

 

[MAX-24-Dean]

The amount of plastics by weight has incresed significantly in all vehicles. Interesting article in link below.

Protecting Parking Garages | NFPA

Why modern vehicles are burning hotter, and how to protect the garages that house them.

www.nfpa.org

One of the proposals in the next code cycle for parking strutures (NFPA 88A) is that all Parking Structures (over 1000sq. ft.) will be required to have Fire Sprinklers.

NFPA 13 (Standard for Installation of Fire Sprinklers) will have a change, where Fire Sprinklers are installed in parking structures a 33% increase in design density for sprinklers will go into effect. Just one of many changes coming, and not just because of EV's.

 

[MAX-24-Dean]

I haven't asked one yet, but I suspect that a Sr. Actuary would list "identifying and quantifying emerging (financial) risks" as one of their top responsibilities.

Because of Tesla's profile, those tend to make the news....

..... feel free to chime-in on those, but my interest is primarily in Commercial vehicles.

One example, in China....

.... if you haven't seen that ^ before or don't watch till the firefighters arrive..... Note: those are only tiny (by N. American standards) mini-buses.....

What I'm interested in is any emerging trends in the Insurance industry, to require EVs to be parked outside, esp. during Charging cycles.

Rgds, D.

Emergency response guide.

AFV Emergency Response Guides | Download from NFPA

NFPA actively maintains a collection of Emergency Response Guides from several alternative fuel vehicle (AFV) manufacturers. The guides are free to download.

www.nfpa.org

 

[bdhsfz6]

I wonder how many similar fires are caused by people using gas grills on apartment building porches.

Those were banned many years ago. Only electric grills are permitted.

 

[3930dave]

The apartment building next door to my Brother's caught fire from a faulty e-bike battery. The owner was charging it on his deck when it ignited. The flames travelled up the vinyl siding to the second floor. It eventually burned the roof off the building before the fire company extinguished it:

View attachment 791054 View attachment 791055

As a result, the apartment complex banned electric bikes in all apartments.

Hopefully no loss of life. I can estimate the energy density/pack size for that Ebike. Even my analytical-side doesn't really want to think about how much smaller that is, compared to what I'm preparing for.

Plastics are convenient to use, but are great fuel sources for a fire. IIRC, that old renovated residential tower that went up in England maybe 5-10 years ago had been updated with exterior plastic cladding, that allowed similar migration of the fire. I believe there was multiple fatalities in that fire.

Reading a bit just now, I think the final toll was 72 people. In the continued push to densify cities, unfortunately this doesn't get the attention it needs.

Homepage | Grenfell Tower Inquiry

Rgds, D.

 

[ning]

I wonder how many similar fires are caused by people using gas grills on apartment building porches.

The thing is those Li-ion battery packs (most likely not UL-listed), when they burn they look like a very large blowtorch, like instantly. It's not gradual at all. If they were more "normal" fires, like an electrical short, you have somewhat of a chance of getting by it to escape, you may notice that there's smoke before it starts burning, and then fires usually don't just instantly catch everything around them on fire - these don't start like a candle and then a bigger flame bigger bigger it's just 1) not burning 2) 2 million BTU torch from one second to the next

Read this - https://www.npr.org/2023/03/11/1162732820/e-bike-scooter-lithium-ion-battery-fires

The sad thing is that these ebikes have been a boon to lower income folks, and they're even more at risk because they tend to live in high-density housing.

It's not a popular topic on TBN I realize, but we need strong regulation of battery sales to ensure that they're built well - if not to protect the buyer, then to protect their neighbor.