The village of Telkwa is looking into new tools to fight electric vehicle fires.
Fire Chief Travis Wall explained to council at their Feb. 13 regular meeting that the number of electric vehicles are increasing on B.C. highways and in our communities. When these vehicles are involved in a fire, the iron lithium batteries can be extremely difficult to extinguish, he said, but there are a few different tools on the market to help fight these new dangers.
“Battery extinguishing system technology is a unit that’s the safest and most efficient option on the market to cool batteries, and quickly stop the thermal runways of the batteries. This device uses as little as 500 gallons of water to extinguish a vehicle battery fire,” Wall wrote in a report to council. “Another device that is found on the market is an EV Utility nozzle which is used to cool the vehicle, which could use 6,000 to 8,000 gallons of water, [but] you still might have thermal runways of the batteries at a later point in time.”
Wall suggested one option to approve a budget of up to $43,300 for the purchase of battery extinguishing system technology to cool batteries and quickly stop thermal runways of the batteries in electric vehicles. Or another option was the EV Utility nozzle which is used to cool the vehicle for $4,000.
Councillors decided to receive the report as information only at this point with Mayor Leroy Dekens asked Wall to explore grant opportunities.
Wall also said that none of the surrounding fire departments have any of the tools.
However, he did add that there are other fire fighting tools higher on his priority list for the department.