There is a dangerous new puzzle that firefighters in Connecticut and around the country are facing. Electric vehicle fires.
Right now, there is no hands-on training in Connecticut to learn how to fight these complicated fires. There isn’t even an agreed plan of attack.
Right now, one fire department in our state is literally writing the book on what to do when EVs burn.
Two months ago, firefighters in Stamford were faced with something they’d never dealt with before: a burning electric car.
EV fires are hard to put out because of something called thermal runaway, which is thousands of little lithium-ion batteries that power EVs and burn in a super-heated chain reaction.
“One of those cells catches on fire, it borders multiple other cells that border potentially hundreds of other cells,” said PJ Norwood.