14h ago

How a Video Game is Teaching Firefighters to Handle EV Fires

fuelarc.com How a Video Game is Teaching Firefighters to Handle EV Fires - FuelArc News

With the rapidly expanding number of EVs on the road, public services are adapting. New charging stations are popping up, public-private partnerships are growing (like Rivian and the State of Illinois teaming up), and first responders are adapting to the new challenges presented by fast-moving techn...

We saw an interesting press release from the National Fire Protection Association, they released an EV firefighting video game for free with the help of a private developer and a Department of Energy grant. So far, more than a million firefighters have used the game to learn about fighting EV fires.

Well, that pitch was irresistible to us. We wanted to know more about how EVs work in emergencies, and we get to play video games to do it? Awesome, count me in, let the games begin. Here's how the game plays and what we learned from it.

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5 comments

Pretty interesting, though the current primary method of EV Fire fighting tactics is the use of fire blankets, which isn’t as exciting or game worthy.
Also lol @ the author confusing backdraft and flashover.
- Some departments are getting water tanks to drop the vehicle in too.
  
  A retired firefighter mentioned that her department was using something very interesting - these are flood control barricades, think plastic sandbags.
  You put up the barricades, and then use that to make a sort of moat, fill it with water, and you basically build the water tank around the burning EV.
  This page shows the concept, site's in India, but this is being done in the western hemisphere some places, too: https://www.floodbarriers.in/ev_fire_fighting.php
- Ya know, we actually don't use fire blankets where I'm at! The training videogame also made no mention of them, and it is very recent, released last year.
  Interesting, right? There's a huge amount of variation for firefighting techniques nationwide for EVs. I've seen them used, but only out West.
  As for confusing backdraft and flashover, no, I got that correct. To the best of my admittedly very spotty memory :)
  See this article, it means different things different places, how I learned it is that every backdraft is a flashover, but not every flashover is a backdraft. If that's wrong, take it up with the lieutenant who trained me, who was incidentally stellar at his job: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backdraft
  
  Flashover and backdraft are two different things with two very different mechanisms behind them. The naming of each are standardized across the nation as each academy should be teaching to the NFPA 1001 standard at a minimum.
  In order to address that with your lieutenant, I would direct him to NFPA 921.