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.

  • dragontamer@lemmy.worldOPM
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    10 months ago

    Sand and some types of foam prevent #2.

    Do you have a demo of this working? A .pdf report on the amount of sand and/or foam needed to achieve this?

    European fire-departments are moving towards this full-submerge tactic because it works. Its one of the big developments in firefighting technique over the last 5ish years.

    When we’re dealing with 1000lbs / half-ton battery packs, the sizes needed to actually effect these fires grows dramatically. I don’t think that fire-departments will be in the business of carrying dumpsters full of sand to try to extinguish these fires… but I dunno, if you got some numbers on the quantity of sand needed to achieve the suppression of the fire we can compare notes.

    • schmidtster@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Yes plenty of places in the states have sand as their official policy. No real difference than your water container than for the sand container, but you can also just cover it without the container as well, this is the preferred method for personal safety, just would need more.

      Same is also easier to remediate than the water as well, some places use wet sand. Best of both worlds, but still need to remediate the water.

      • GlitzyArmrest@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        How does sand stop the internal exothermic reaction, though? I could see wet sand maybe, but just straight sand? It’s not a normal fire and is self-sustaining.

        • schmidtster@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          Why would it?

          Weighs less and is easier to store and transport than water. Also what about places that freeze? Gonna have an ice cube with a car in it after.

          Not every place is with it easy access of fire hydrants, what about the middle of a highway? Both water and sand would essentially be equally cumbersome to get there.

          • Olhonestjim@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            Just because some places freeze does not mean that all of the water will turn into an ice cube. Water freezes from the top, which then acts as an insulator for the liquid below. This is how ice fishing is possible. Are you just throwing objections at the wall to see what sticks?

            A better objection with regard to freezing would be the fact that leaking water all over a highway presents a road hazard to other drivers. In which case, yes sand might be the better option. That’s why we have different methods for fighting them.

            • schmidtster@lemmy.world
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              10 months ago

              Water freezes from all sides… who told you that?

              Rivers freeze from the top since the ground heats the bottom and sides….

              • Olhonestjim@lemmy.world
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                10 months ago

                How long do you seriously think it takes thousands of gallons of water to freeze? Especially with a heat source they are trying to extinguish? Can you seriously not accept that there are professionals who know a lot more about this than you?

                • schmidtster@lemmy.world
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                  10 months ago

                  That entirely on the temperature outside and cannot be answered, you should know this lmfao….

                  And you’re supposed to leave it submerged for 7-14 days. How long do you think water will stay warm before freezing……?

                  • Olhonestjim@lemmy.world
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                    10 months ago

                    I suspect it’ll stay quite toasty, actually, considering it’s supposed to be extinguishing a self-sustaining exothermic reaction.