WILKES-BARRE, Pa. — First responders in Luzerne County believe millions of new electric vehicles will be on the road in the next decade, which means they need to be ready when these cars are involved in an emergency.
Firefighters from Wilkes-Barre, Kingston, Hanover Township and Plains Township are at the Hollenback Fire Station on North Washington street in Wilkes-Barre for a new type of training: Fighting fires involving electric vehicles.
“I'd like to stress the point that electric vehicles are safe. So I'm not here to dissuade people. I'm not here to change people I'm here to better educate firefighters so when they get an electric vehicle involved in a crash or it's involved in a fire itself, that they can handle it efficiently and effectively” said instructor Stephen Martin.
While these firefighters have battled gasoline and diesel fires before, fighting an electric vehicle fire is much different.
“It's just when a fault happens within the battery cells of that that's when it becomes unsafe and our partners are exposed to the other dangerous toxic chemicals, the flammable chemicals, the electric shock as part of it.” said Martin.
“We have to change our attack strategy. We cannot fight a high voltage electrical vehicle fire in the same manner that we do with current vehicles.” said Chief Jay Delaney of the Wilkes-Barre City Fire Department.
Part of this training involves identifying the makeup of an electric car battery and how to approach a scene involving electric vehicles.
“Have firefighters understand that it's a toxic environment as well as a flammable environment so let's put a little bit more hazards to it. Than what we normally have in the street.” said Chief Delaney.
Experts say it takes 10 to 20 times the amount of water to put out these fires, and special tools that can fight the fire from underneath the vehicle.
This was the second of 4 trainings for these departments in Luzerne County