All that water... not very enviro-friendly it seems
Motor Mouth: The scary business of putting out an EV fire
I now know more about fire engines than I ever thought would be necessary. For instance, did you know fire trucks and fire engines are not the same thing? An engine, as it turns out, is the vehicle that carries and pumps the water; a “truck,” on the other hand carries hardware, emergency gear, and perhaps the ladders required to reach the upper floors of tall buildings, but no water.
I also know, mainly because I couldn’t believe the numbers that I am going to spring on you, that fire engines generally hold between 500 and 1,500 gallons of water. The norm is about 750 gallons, but let’s be generous — and also avoid some difficult math down the road — and call it an even 1,000.
The reason you’re going to need that long division is that, according to an article by the
International Association of Fire and Rescue Services — which quotes Austin Fire Department Division Chief Thayer Smith — it can take as many as 40,000 gallons of water to completely extinguish a roaring Tesla fire. That is — and now you see why I rounded up — equivalent to 40 fire engines. Even the lowest estimate I could find for extinguishing an EV — 8,000 gallons — would challenge any fire department, if some kind of reservoir wasn’t close by.
Motor Mouth: The scary business of putting out an EV fire