Photos: Six Electric Vehicles Burn in Fort Worth, TX, Car Dealership Lot
For more than 17 hours, Fort Worth firefighters worked to contain a fire that ultimately gutted six electric vehicles (EVs) and damaged two others at a dealership.
Fort Worth Engine 23 was dispatched to a vehicle fire in a lot at the Frank Kent Cadillac dealership around 5 p.m. Friday on the city's west side.
Firefighters found an SUV engulfed in flames, which was spreading to other nearby SUVs when firefighters determined that they were EVs.
"One of the unique challenges that these EV fires present is trying to get water into an area that is manufactured to be completely sealed off from anything from the outside," Public Information Officer Craig Trojacek told Firehouse.com. "As the world’s challenges continue to evolve, we have to make sure that our operational tactics are keeping up and staying current in this game."
He said the EV fire created extreme heat, which allowed the single vehicle fire to quickly spready to adjacent vehicles.
Additional units were requested as crews tried to battle the fire and protect nearby vehicles from the radiant heat.
To slow the fire and allow surrounding vehicles to be removed from the area, crews deployed EV fire blankets on several of the burning EVs.
"With manufacturing changing at accelerated speeds, it is the responsibility of the fire service to not only stay on top of these changes and training for the ones that we swore to protect, but to also make sure we are doing it in a manner through updated policies and procedures with the long-term health effects of our own firefighters in mind," Trojacek said. "We owe that to our members and their loved ones, too."
Trojacek said six vehicles were gutted and two others sustained damage.
Crews were rotated throughout the night to keep the fire in check, with the last crew going in service at 10:30 a.m., 17 hours and 33 minutes after they were first dispatched.
"Outdated tactics on some of these new fires may be the difference between life and death," Trojacek explained. "Maybe not here today but in the lifetime of those in the fire service. The safety of the public will always come first. But we also must be responsible once the initial threat has been handled. Our firefighters deserve to live long healthy lives once the uniform is no longer put on."
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
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Peter Matthews