Smoke detection is essential for fighting electric vehicle and battery fires

Lina Portman3 weeks ago

1 1 minute read

Tommy Carnebo, Training Manager and Electric Vehicle Risk Specialist at Dafo Vehicle Fire Protection, gave a very interesting presentation on fighting battery fires in the TOC Safety Village at TOC Europe.

Carnebo's key message was that early detection when the battery is just starting to smoke was essential, because once the fire and heat trail have set in, there's not much that can be done.

Once the heat trace is installed, the battery cells will continue to burn even if submerged in water or even liquid nitrogen.

Video of a fire from a Tesla battery initially showed a small amount of smoke, five minutes later it was a small fire, and 15 minutes it was inferno. If the potential fire is detected when it is only smoke, it should be possible to completely prevent a fire from occurring.

Electric vehicle fires are a concern for terminal operators, both for cargo and for terminal handling equipment, as many ports have chosen electrification as a way to reduce operations-related emissions. Carnebo said, however, that terminal operators should not be afraid of electric vehicles and that he clearly sees their use in ports as the future.

“We don't see electric vehicles as having a higher risk, and we don't see an increase in the number of fires,” he said.

Rather than being afraid of the equipment, Carnebo said terminal operators should be afraid of what the containers are, citing a shipping company he has worked with that said 85% of lithium-ion shipments were improperly labeled. “It’s a big headache for you, no doubt.”

Misdeclared dangerous goods have long been a problem for container shipping, leading to serious fires and ship accidents.

Asked what can be done to prevent fires caused by containers, he said the solution lies in smoke detection. A smoke detector in the container connected to the ship's bridge would allow the “fire” to be seen before it becomes a risk.