The era of electrification of means of transport has also had an impact on ways in which rescue teams intervene in an accident. The toughest task is that of the vfirefighters who have dealt with a type of fire never seen beforeUnpleasant and therefore need to develop specific safety procedures when electric cars are involved.
Difficult to turn them off
In fact, that is known the flames of an electric car are more difficult to extinguish and which in many cases can deploy several teams of firefighters at the same time, for which one shocking waste of water, as in the case of the Tesla Model S we talked about a while ago. Even the support of car manufacturers, in the form of training organized together with operators to help them recognize the hazards and specificities of the different car models, has not been enough so far and until now no one had thought of creating a fire truck specially equipped to intervene in the event of a fire in an electric vehicle.
It has a fire hydrant that pierces steel
Prospeed Motorsport then ensured, an English company that chose it as the basis for its creation, a Toyota Hilux pick-up with a chassis extended by 1.2 meters and fitted with a 6×6 drivetrain: although in reality it seems gigantic it is low enough (less than 2 meters) to fit into underground car parksthe potentially most dangerous place in the event that an electric car catches fire and where action must be taken as quickly as possible can be crucial to prevent the fire from spreading. However, the real difference is made by the Coldcut Cobra system, which is a kind of super fire hydrant with a double function: it is so powerful that it can cut through the floor of a car and directly reach the battery modules to cool them down by covering them with water under a pressure of 300 bar. To give you an idea, a simple pressure cooker reaches 2 bar, car tires at most 3, while a professional compressor normally works around 15 bar.
Unique in the world
The mechanism is similar to that of a thermal lance used to cut metals, only here the force of water is used mixed with an abrasive material
to reach the thermal source that caused the fire, namely the battery cells, and then cool it down. Currently there is only one example which is being used experimentally in the Czech Republic.
Source: Corriere
I am Ruby Schultz, a journalist and author with experience in the news industry. I have worked at several top-tier publications, such as The News Dept., where I primarily cover technology news. My work has been featured in prominent outlets like The New York Times and Wired Magazine.
