18 May 2023
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — Sedgwick County Commissioner David Dennis says he’s part of a new task force to figure out the infrastructure needed to support electric vehicles and keep firefighters safe.
Dennis says the current technology used to fight electric vehicle fires is expensive and requires a much larger amount of resources.
“On a gas fire, from the studies that I’ve seen, takes about 1,000 gallons of water to put that fire out. On an electric vehicle, in order to cool that battery down enough, it takes about 30,000 gallons of water,” Dennis said.
Commissioner Dennis says a process known as “thermal runaway” makes fighting lithium-ion battery fires much more difficult.
“So, if one cell out of all the hundreds of cells that are in this battery starts to overheat, then it transfers that heat to the next cell, and it’s just kind of a ripple effect,” Dennis said.
Wichita Fire Department Battalion Chief Jose Ocadiz says an extinguishing agent known as Lith-X is a good alternative for fires caused by small lithium-ion batteries, but it has its limitations. Lith-X is a graphite-based dry powder blended for use on lithium fire. It is effective on fire involving high melting points.
“Those larger types of vehicles, or buses, transportation types of vehicles on being able to contain that temperature, water’s going to be our first and best option,” Ocadiz said.
Ocadiz says the WFD only has one five-gallon bucket of Lith-X currently in use. He says the department would prefer owning at least 50 buckets, but the average cost per bucket is $440.
“We would love to have this type of extinguishing agent on all of our vehicles, but right now, because of the technology, it’s still new, and the research continues on what’s the best options,” Ocadiz said.
Another challenge: fire and building codes have been unable to keep up with technology.
“With the new technology of these electrical transportation vehicles, there’s nothing in the current fire code or building code that has any language or relates to this type of fire,” Ocadiz said.
Ocadiz says the City of Wichita follows the latest International Code Council regulations on fire and building code which was released in 2018. He says an updated version will be released in 2024. Meanwhile, Commissioner Dennis says the next EV task force meeting will take place in June.