Firefighters try new way to smother hard-to extinguish EV fires, tossing big blanket over vehicle

A new technology is being deployed to help firefighters deal with electric vehicle fires – a big blanket.

Firefighters in West Bend, Wisconsin, a town of 32,000, north of Milwaukee, are using a fire blanket, along with a fire suppression tool to combat EV fires, reports local ABC-affiliate WISN.

The firefighters pull the blanket over the burning EV and throw the suppression tool under the car. The suppression tool floods the space under the blanket with a powdered aerosol, and along with the blanket, the tools help smother the fire.

Because lithium produces oxygen when burned, it’s difficult to smother a burning lithium-ion battery. Firefighters use 40 times more water than on a gas-powered car fire. The fire also burns much hotter than a burning gas-powered vehicle, and they can reignite up to a month later.

According to a Tesla Model 3 emergency response guide, it can take 24 hours to extinguish an EV battery fire. When it’s safe to do so, the automaker recommends allowing the battery to burn.

Mark Mock, president and chief operating officer for Fire Suppression Solutions, told WISN that it has received dozens of orders for their fire suppression tool and the fire blanket made by Fire Cloak USA.

The companies recently trained for use on the tools at a car-carrying ferry in Wisconsin.

While EV fires are difficult to extinguish, a study by AutoInsuranceEV found they happen less often than gas-powered car fires or fires in hybrid vehicles, which combine characteristics of both EVs and gas-powered engines.