With many technological advancements introduced to society come new response concerns for the fire service that eventually lead to the development of new tools used to mitigate an emergency. With the increasing prevalence of electric vehicles (EV), there is an increased concern about Lithium-Ion battery fires in our community. These EV battery compartment fires pose a significant threat to responders with the presence of toxins in the smoke and to the environment due to toxin-laden water runoff. The Cold Cut Cobra Water Lance is a new tool that is designed to address this new category of emergency.
Lithium-Ion battery fires require a much larger volume of water to extinguish than other types of fires; they have high levels of toxins captured in the water runoff; and they have aerosolized particulates in the smoke that can be, at minimum, a respiratory irritant, but can also lead to respiratory distress and even respiratory arrest in some cases. Using the Cold Cut Cobra reduces the amount of water used and can eliminate the release of aerosolized toxins.
Lithium-Ion batteries can enter a state of thermal runaway, in which the temperature of the batteries increases to the point of ignition, either from impact to the batteries or an electrical short. Fire can then extend from battery to battery throughout the steel encased battery compartment of the EV. With the protective steel casing limiting access to the battery compartment, applying water onto the batteries to cool and extinguish a fire is difficult. Water application to the exterior of the compartment may cool the compartment enough to reduce the flames temporarily, but this will rarely extinguish the fire completely, as lithium-ion batteries in thermal runaway tend to continue to heat up and often reignite.
With EV becoming so prevalent in our country, this is a national issue and the response model across the country varies widely when addressing EV fires. Some departments are altering their response protocols to refrain from using water and thus allowing the fire to completely consume the batteries. This results in faster fire extinguishment than if water is applied to the battery compartment but can lead to the release of a large toxic plume into the air which can adversely affect the safety of people downwind. Other departments are extinguishing these fires using traditional firefighting techniques, which results in thousands of gallons of toxin-laden water on the roadway that can enter the watershed through drains or permeate the soil adjacent to the roadway. The Cold Cut Cobra is designed to extinguish the fire and trap the toxins in the battery compartment with very little water and a significant reduction in smoke production, reducing the negative environmental and safety impacts of an EV fire.
The Cold Cut Cobra has a self-contained water tank with a motor used to power a high-pressure water pump, with the additional ability to mix in a nontoxic, environmentally safe iron ore aggregate used to penetrate into solid materials such as metal and concrete, using a hole of just 1/8” in diameter, roughly the size of a small ball bearing. The water is delivered through a nozzle with multiple triggers which control water flow and the aggregate mixture. The tool is designed to pierce through the metal protective battery compartment cover using the aggregate-water mix. Once the hole is made, the iron ore is removed from the stream and the water stream floods the compartment, quickly extinguishing the fire and eliminating a possibility of a rekindle, as the water stops the propagation of the thermal runaway. There is also very little concern of water run off using this tool, as almost all the water is trapped in the battery compartment.
The Cold Cut Cobra will be housed on Heavy Squad 24, located in the Overlook Neighborhood, which will provide excellent access to I5 North and Southbound. This apparatus responds to all high-rise fire incidents or fires in buildings greater than 7 stories in height. Keeping this tool on Heavy Squad 24 will enable easy deployment to Portland streets for EV battery fires and will ensure this tool will be available at any large structure fires that have lithium-ion battery banks used for power sources and storage.
PF&R was fortunate to receive funding from the City’s Bureau of Fleet and Facilities (BFF) to purchase a Cold Cut Cobra Water Lance that will use significantly less water than the traditional techniques and mitigate battery compartment fires in a short period of time, reducing respiratory exposures and reducing if not eliminating the toxic runoff from the water used in extinguishment. BFF’s City Fleet received a grant from the Portland Clean Energy Community Benefits Fund (PCEF) to support transitioning the City’s fleet to battery-electric vehicles and equipment, including charging infrastructure, vehicle technician training, and related maintenance and emergency response tools such as the Cold Cut Cobra Water Lance Electrification of the City’s fleet supports the City’s 2022-2025 Climate Emergency Workplan and related City policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from City operations.
PF&R members have received training on how to operate the Cold Cut Cobra and the tool will be placed in service shortly to better serve those in our response area. Portland Fire & Rescue would like to thank both City Fleet and the Portland Clean Energy Fund for providing for the funding for this highly specialized tool that will both improve our response capabilities and reduce the environmental impacts of Li-Ion battery fires in EV’s.
Source: Portland Fire & Rescue