Ford F-150 Lightning Spectacular EV Fire

From Watts Up With That?

Essay by Eric Worrall

Ford F-150 Lightning EV Fire. Source Dearborn Police Department via CNBC

h/t ResourceGuy; Another EV has joined the ranks of vehicles you probably shouldn’t park close to anything you care about.

Ford F-150 Lightning fire footage highlights a growing EV risk

PUBLISHED THU, APR 20 20238:00 AM EDTUPDATED THU, APR 20 2023AT 1:29 EDT
Michael Wayland@MIKEWAYLAND

• New video footage of a fire that started in a Ford F-150 Lightning earlier this year highlights an emerging concern regarding the adoption of electric vehicles.
• The previously unreleased footage, obtained by CNBC, shows smoke billowing from three tightly packed electric pickups. Moments later, flames shoot several feet above the vehicles, which were unoccupied.
• Fires involving EV batteries can burn hotter and longer and require new techniques to extinguish, posing a growing challenge to first responders.

DEARBORN, Mich. — New video footage of a fire involving a Ford F-150 Lightning this year highlights a growing concern around electric vehicles: volatile fires from the batteries that power them.

The previously unreleased footage, which CNBC obtained through Michigan’s Freedom of Information Act from the Dearborn Police Department, shows smoke billowing from three tightly packed electric pickups in a Ford Motor holding lot in Dearborn, Michigan.

Moments later, flames shoot several feet above the vehicles, which were unoccupied. It wasn’t clear based on public documents and police video how long the fires burned. Experts say EV fires can take hours, rather than minutes, to extinguish.

EV fires have become a growing concern as automakers push to increase sales of electric vehicles and meet tightening emissions standards.

…Read more (includes a video): https://www.cnbc.com/2023/04/20/f-150-lightning-fire-footage-growing-ev-risk.html

An electric Ford F-150 Lightning caught fire on Feb. 4, 2023 due to a battery issue traced back to one of the automaker’s suppliers. The blaze spread to two other electric pickups in a holding lot of Ford’s in Dearborn, Michigan.

EV fires are extraordinarily difficult to extinguish, and emit toxic fumes which can cause acute and long term debilitating injuries in anyone unlucky enough to breathe them. They also burn hot enough to melt steel and concrete, and need minimal or in some cases no oxygen to continue burning – more like a thermite fire than an ordinary flame.

Lets hope Ford figure out what went wrong, before someone gets killed.