this post was submitted on 27 Dec 2023
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A new crash recently in Alabama, but a reminder to something that we all know. Burning Teslas are far more difficult to extinguish than any other car.

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[–] EatYouWell 69 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (12 children)

It's pretty clear from the comments that people don't really know anything about lithium batteries. OP actually knows what their talking about for the most part.

First, lithium batteries contain little to no elemental lithium. Just because the molecule has lithium in it doesn't mean it'll react violently with water. Think about table salt. Just because elemental sodium reacts violently with water doesn't mean table salt will.

Secondly, it's not an electrical fire. A lithium battery fire is an exothermic, self sustaining chemical reaction.

Thirdly, that chemical reaction is self oxidizing, so you can't just smother the fire to put it out.

The only way to stop a lithium battery fire is to either let it burn itself out (which is bad because the smoke is highly toxic), or cool it down enough so it can't self sustain. Water is very good at this.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago (2 children)

This is the best comment in this thread. Imo a better option is not to change the cooling fluid, but to have a water connection that allows firefighters to flood the battery instead of just spraying on the vehicle

[–] Zoboomafoo 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

A giant bucket or water balloon?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

Personally I'd go for an aqueduct type system

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