AURORA, Colo. — Denver7 talked to a Colorado firefighter who said lithium-ion batteries have completely changed how fire departments respond to emergencies like the crash that killed one person near Buckley Space Force Base on Monday.
Five other people, including children are still recovering. Investigators say a total of four cars, including an Aurora police car were involved. Then an electric vehicle burst into flames, in part, because the battery was damaged.
“This is probably one of the in the fire service career, you know, in decades, hundreds of years - this is probably the most challenging time for the fire service in in history,” Aurora firefighter Paul Shoemaker said. “And we’ve barely touched it at this point.”
Shoemaker travels all over the country training fire departments about lithium-ion battery fires. He said, while these batteries have more power and last longer, the big concern is if the battery is damaged.
The extent of the damage will depend on the car design. Shoemaker said these kinds of batteries are also found in a whole array of items, including scooters and lawn mowers.
The concern is that these types of fires burn fast and hot, as much as 2,000 degrees.
When there is a damaged lithium-ion battery in a car crash, firefighters' top priority is pulling people out as quickly as possible.
Shoemaker said it can take on average 5,000 gallons of water to put out one of these fires versus 500 gallons for a not electric vehicle.
During an emergency, the big question is where you get that kind of water. Fire trucks typically carry 500 gallons. Shoemaker said firefighters may not be near a hydrant, if you're in the middle of the highway or somewhere rural. This could mean rotating out engines or bringing in portable water.
“Our incident stabilization might turn to letting it burn,” Shoemaker said. “Because we're not going to get that kind of water to those areas without shutting down major roadways.”
A week and a half before the car crash, Aurora fire released a policy about this issue, kick starting new training. In this situation, getting enough water on the car was an issue. That’s why firefighters pulled the car into the middle of the street and let it burn as safely as possible. It’s also why you see the burn marks on the road.
If there’s one thing firefighters hope you take away from this, it's that a lot of EV car doors are electric, which can go out during a fire. That means people can get stuck inside. There is a manual way to open, but you have to know where it is. That information is in emergency guides.
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