NFPA and UL Research Affiliates Issue Warning on Using Fire Blankets for Electric Vehicle Fires
The Fire Protection Research Foundation (FPRF), the research affiliate of NFPA, and The Fire Safety Research Institute (FSRI), part of UL Research Institutes have jointly issued a notice warning about potential explosion risks associated with using fire blankets to control or extinguish fires in electric vehicles with battery involvement. The U.S. Fire Administration also posted the notice.
According to the notice, recent experiments utilizing a fire blanket to control or extinguish an electric vehicle with battery involvement revealed that while the blanket did eliminate the fire for the vehicle and the battery, likely by denying oxygen, “battery thermal runaway propagation” continued, leading to the accumulation of flammable gases under the blanket. In some cases, this accumulation presented a nearby explosion hazard, especially when oxygen is reintroduced.
The experiments were part of the ongoing FPRF “Assessment of EV Firefighting Tactics, Tools and the Impact on Stranded Energy” research project assessing the effectiveness of four firefighting strategies for these types of fires. Those strategies include; standard hose stream application with water only; standard hose stream application with injected agent; electric vehicle fire blankets; and firefighting appliances. A full analysis of the project’s results is expected to be released on the NFPA’s website in the Fall.
The results of the concurrent FSRI research project “Fire Safety of Batteries and Electric Vehicles are forthcoming and expected to be released on fsri.org.
You can read the notice at: Joint Notice Highlights Potential Risk With Electric Vehicle Firefighting Tactic Involving Fire Blankets | NFPA
