The crews bracing themselves for a rise in electric car fires

Firefighter: “Our preferred approach is to let them burn themselves out”. EV fires ‘create a variety of toxic chemicals’. They ‘have to be “quarantined” away from other vehicles even after the fire appears to have been put out’, in case they re-ignite days or even 2-3 weeks later. Other types of car are still available, but in increasingly restricted numbers due to so-called climate policies.
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Each year, Essex Fire and Rescue Service focuses on one area of “top-up” training for its crews, says BBC News.

In recent years, this has included sessions on firefighting at height and managing hazardous materials.

This year, a new course is being introduced: How to deal with electric vehicle fires. Why?

Electric double-decker bus erupts into flames in Wimbledon during rush hour

London hybrid double-decker [image credit: buses world news]

Scary. Best wear running shoes when using vehicles powered wholly or partly by lithium batteries (full details not yet reported). — Update: the bus manufacturer is Switch.
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A bus has dramatically caught fire on Wimbledon high street this morning, with residents reporting a loud bang and thick smoke.

Videos and photos showed clouds of smoke billowing from a red double-decker bus on Wimbledon Hill Road and Alwyne Road. ‘We heard a huge bang. We were terrified’ Max Pashley, a local resident, told City AM.

There have been no reported injuries, according to the Met, while road closures and cordons are expected to remain in place for some time. “We thank the local community for their patience and cooperation as emergency services work at the scene,” a spokesperson said.

Oil Tanker Fire Sparked by Lithium-ion Battery Explosion, says NTSB

Not much new except maybe the guilty device in the official explanation of this damaging on-board ship fire last year: an exploding battery cell. CCTV evidence of the incident here (snapshots). For caption, see linked report.
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The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) on Thursday cited thermal runaway of a cell within a handheld radio’s lithium-ion battery as the cause of a fire on an oil tanker docked in Baton Rouge, La., reports MarineLink.

The Liberian-registered oil tanker S-Trust was docked at the Genesis Port Allen Terminal on November 13, 2022, when a fire on the bridge was sparked by one of the cells in a lithium-ion battery for an ultra-high-frequency handheld radio exploding, the NTSB’s investigation found.

The batteries and chargers for the handheld radios were located on the communications table on the bridge.

By the time the vessel’s crew extinguished the fire, the S-Trust’s navigation, communication and alarm systems were damaged beyond use.

Electric cars risk becoming uninsurable

BMW i3 electric car plus battery pack [image credit: carmagazine.co.uk]

Over-sensitive and unpredictable lithium-based batteries continue to be a headache, for various reasons. Is the EV industry really ready for prime time, as government ‘net zero’ mandates take hold?
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Electric cars risk becoming effectively uninsurable as analysts struggle to put a price on battery repairs, the researcher for the car insurance industry has said. — The Telegraph reporting.

Jonathan Hewett, chief executive of Thatcham Research, the motor insurers’ automotive research centre, said a lack of “insight and understanding” about the cost of repairing damaged electric car batteries was pushing up premiums and resulting in some providers declining to provide cover altogether.

Electric cars can be particularly expensive to repair, costing around a quarter more to fix on average than a petrol or diesel vehicle.

Experts have previously warned electric vehicles are being written off after minor bumps because of the cost and complexity of fixing their batteries.

NSW fireghters foil fire risk at smoking green energy unit

Credit: mgathermal.com

Storing electricity, e.g. from renewables, is an ongoing headache with a recurring problem. If things go wrong ‘hazardous materials crews’ may be needed, along with a ‘bulk carbon dioxide tanker’ to cool things down – spot the irony. The company’s aim of ‘Making 24/7 renewables a reality’ is looking a tad optimistic.
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Firefighters have called in expert technicians to help deal with a dangerous heat build-up at a cutting-edge renewable energy storage plant but the incident has been stabilised, reports The New Daily.

MGA Thermal is behind a new form of thermal energy storage that allows retrofitted coal-fired power stations to distribute renewable energy long after it was produced.

But the company had to call in firefighters on Friday morning at its demonstrator plant in the Tomago industrial area, north of Newcastle.

Initial assessments of over-heating machinery led to the evacuation of 15 businesses.

London’s electric nightmare as batteries ignite

Attending an e-bike fire in London

‘Cheap’ lithium batteries and DIY amateurs prove to be a risky pairing, as more people try to keep their travel costs down by any available means. Unsupervised charging not advisable.
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A sharp increase in e-bike and e-scooter fires has raised significant safety concerns in London, as firefighters grapple with more incidents in 2023 than during the entirety of the previous year, says Energy Live News.

As of the end of August, the London Fire Brigade reported battling 104 e-bike fires and 19 e-scooter fires, surpassing the 116 total incidents recorded in 2022.

Three individuals have lost their lives this year in fires believed to be caused by lithium battery failures, with an additional 51 people suffering injuries.

Pyrotechnic Pandemonium: Wind Turbines Can’t Help Exploding In Toxic Fireballs

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“There’s a lot of oil up there”. One for deluded anti-oil protesters to ponder.

STOP THESE THINGS

Wind turbines love exploding into toxic fireballs that firefighters don’t even bother putting out. It’s a case of burn, baby burn when these things self-immolate.

The staggering rise in the number of turbine fires and total turbine collapses has caused insurers to ramp up the premiums they require to insure them.

Understandably, neighbours are getting sick and tired of being covered with palls of toxic smoke when these things burst into flames.

This time the pyrotechnic pandemonium takes place in Ontario.

Wind turbine blaze ‘contained’ north of Goderich, Ont.
London CTV
Scott Miller
4 June 2023

Todd Edginton could hardly believe his eyes when he looked out his back door to find a wind turbine on fire. He wasn’t alone, as people stopped just north of Goderich to see the spectacle unfold.

“I was going back to the cottage along Highway 21 from Goderich, and saw this. I said…

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Matt Ridley: I’ll buy a new petrol car in 2029

The rush to electric vehicles risks killing our car industry, shackling us to China and bumping up our taxes to reduce global emissions by just 0.044%. That’s why I’ll be buying a brand new petrol car just before the 2030 ban

Daily Mail July 8

BMW i3 electric car plus battery pack [image credit: carmagazine.co.uk]

Britain’s electric vehicle transition and the ban on petrol car sales from 2030 are a slow-motion car crash. The technology is not ready, the cost will be vast, the logistics are forbidding, the reliance on China is worrying and the backlash from the public is likely to be harsh.

Worst of all, the benefits are derisory at best and may not even exist.

Yes, you read that right. It is possible that we could replace all of Britain’s cars and vans with electric vehicles and still find that carbon dioxide emissions are higher, not lower. Cost-benefit, hello?

Choking on Canada’s ‘Climate Change’ Smoke

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Claims of no evidence of arson were undermined by police arresting someone for starting 32 wildfires on a previous occasion, and this.

PA Pundits International

Our northern neighbor’s wildfires are wreaking havoc on American air quality, and the Left is leaping to the usual conclusions.

DOUGLAS ANDREWS

MORE BY THIS AUTHOR

Listen closely, and you can practically hear him say it: You never want a serious Canadian wildfire crisis to go to waste.

No, Rahm Emanuel isn’t whispering into Joe Biden’s ear these days, but those on the Left know well what Barack Obama’s former chief of staff said in the days just after the 2008 election, and they certainly know “an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before” when they see one.

Take Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, for example, who told her 13 million Twitter followers yesterday: “Between NYC in wildfire smoke and this [heat wave] in [Puerto Rico], it bears repeating how unprepared we are for the climate crisis. We must adapt our food systems, energy grids, infrastructure, healthcare, etc…

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How 1970s conservation laws turned Australia into a tinderbox

Bush fire

Hardly a surprising conclusion in this research. A classic example of replacing what worked with what sounded good.
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Southeast Australia’s bushfire crisis culminated in the devastating bushfire season of 2019 and 2020 that burnt nearly 25 million hectares of bush, says Phys.org.

Our new research demonstrates how the scale of this disaster blew out due to legislation introduced in the 1970s, which was based on idea that nature should be left to grow freely without human intervention.

We investigated the bushfire history of one of the worst hit areas: Buchan on Gunaikurnai Country in Victoria.

We found no bushfires burned there for almost a century until the mid 1970s, following the establishment of the Land Conservation Act of 1970—legislation that sought to protect the Australian bush from humans.

This legislation banned farmers from mimicking Aboriginal burning practices by using frequent fires to promote grass for livestock. As a result, the amount of flammable trees and shrubs exploded in the region.

It was only after this prohibition on burning that catastrophic bushfires became an issue in the Buchan area.

The prolonged neglect of southeast Australian forests under the guise of conservation means our forests now carry dangerous levels of fuels. This creates the conditions in which climate-driven bushfires become megafires, devastating Country and people’s lives.

Full article here.
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Related — in California ‘roughly 127 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent…were released by the state’s 2020 wildfires…[The] draft 2022 Scoping Plan…urges state and federal authorities to drastically increase the thinning and treatment of forests that have become dangerously overgrown with flammable vegetation.’

Electric vehicles are exploding from water damage after Hurricane Ian, top Florida official warns

Typical electric car set-up

Water and electricity don’t mix too well. A headache for owners but also for insurers.
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A top Florida state official warned Thursday that firefighters have battled a number of fires caused by electric vehicle (EV) batteries waterlogged from Hurricane Ian, reports Fox News.

EV batteries that have been waterlogged in the wake of the hurricane are at risk of corrosion, which could lead to unexpected fires, according to Jimmy Patronis, the state’s top financial officer and fire marshal.

“There’s a ton of EVs disabled from Ian. As those batteries corrode, fires start,” Patronis tweeted Thursday. “That’s a new challenge that our firefighters haven’t faced before. At least on this kind of scale.”

California’s multi-billion-dollar climate initiative reveals problem with using forests to offset CO2 emissions

Smoke from a California wildfire [image credit: BBC]

There’s a ‘fundamental design problem’, namely that the forests have an unfortunate tendency to burn down. Research finds it ‘incredibly unlikely’ that such schemes will work, and not only in California.
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Researchers have found that California’s forest carbon buffer pool, designed to ensure the durability of the state’s multi-billion-dollar carbon offset program, is severely undercapitalized, says Eurekalert.

The results show that, within the offset program’s first 10 years, estimated carbon losses from wildfires have depleted at least 95% of the contributions set aside to protect against all fire risks over 100 years.

This means that the buffer pool is unable to guarantee that credited forest carbon remains out of the atmosphere for at least 100 years.

London bus explosion: Five electric buses go up in a fireball – smoke seen for miles

BYD electric bus, London [image credit: China Daily]

Getting to be a monotonously regular thing. Insurers and fire brigades won’t need telling that. What about the travelling public? Hard to tell from the footage which type of e-bus it was, so may or may not be like the one pictured here.
[Update 1: A BBC report shows pictures of some buses that appear similar to the one pictured and says up to seven may be on fire]
[Update 2: BBC reported six buses caught fire, two electric and four diesel].
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FIVE electric double decker buses have exploded at the Potters Bar Bus Garage near London, reports the Daily Express.

Video footage posted on line shows flames and thick black smoke billowing skywards from the garage in the High Street, as by-standers watch on in horror.

Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service said six fire engines had been sent to the scene. The fire brigade urged the public to avoid the area and said the emergency could last for a “long time”.

Full report here.

Exploding e-scooters kill four as heatwave damages batteries

Ballistic battery time again. Insurers and fire fighters must be nervous as mass battery-powered travel is supposed to be the future in many countries.
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There have been near daily reports of electric scooters catching fire across India amid record-breaking temperatures, says The Telegraph.

At least four Indians have died since March after their electric scooters caught fire, with record-breaking temperatures caused by climate change now feared to be behind the deadly blazes.

A father and daughter died in the southern state of Tamil Nadu in March, while two men died in two separate incidents in April in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

Paris suspends electric bus fleet after fires

Image credit: sustainable-bus.com

H/T JohnM
One bus…30 fire fighters. Best wear running shoes and travel light if boarding such a vehicle. This has happened before.
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Dozens of electric buses will be taken off the streets of Paris temporarily “as a precaution” after two of the vehicles caught fire, public transport operator RATP said on Friday. The Local – France reporting.

Following a second blaze on Friday morning, in which no one was hurt, “RATP has taken the decision to suspend use of 149 electric buses” of manufacturer Bollore’s Bluebus 5SE model, the state-owned company said.

The number 71 bus that caught fire in southeast Paris early on Friday released thick clouds of black smoke and a strong smell of burning plastic, according to an AFP journalist on the scene.

“The bus driver immediately evacuated all the passengers. Nobody was hurt,” RATP said, while the city fire service said the blaze was put out by around 30 firefighters.

Watch: Tesla Owner Told Repairs Will Cost 20,000 Euros. He Chose Dynamite

Tesla plant [image credit: Steve Jurvetson @ Wikipedia]

Sometimes you’ve just had enough…
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Automobile giant Tesla leads the EV sector with innovations and new technology, says NDTV.

But that was not enough to stop a disgruntled customer from blowing up his Tesla car using 30 kg of dynamite.

Jaala, an idyllic and ice-covered village in south Finland’s Kymenlaakso region with just a few thousand people, witnessed a bizarre incident as the owner of a 2013 Tesla Model S set his car up for an explosion.

The crew of a YouTube channel – Pommijatkat – shot the entire episode that premiered on Sunday with the help of a few volunteers.

Full report here.

Fire in Stuttgart bus depot «could have been caused by e-bus charging». Munich takes 8 e-buses out of service

Mercedes e-Citaro electric bus [image credit: mercedes-benz.com]

Some travellers are now unwilling to board any of the local e-buses, according to at least one TV report. Looks like yet another lithium-ion event.
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A large fire event in Stuttgarter Straßenbahnen (SBB)’s depot, in Gaisberg, destroyed 25 buses on Thursday 30th September, says Sustainable Bus.

A few days ago, a first assessment by the police, reported on many German media, said that the fire could have been caused by an electric bus during charging procedure.

EV Buyers Beware – Fires, Scarce Charging Times, And Parking Restrictions

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EVs: doing away with the engine, but not the combustion?

PA Pundits International

By Ronald Stein ~

In the wake of a series of severe EV battery fires, one of the largest vehicle manufacturers in the world,General Motors has just issued safety recommendations for Bolt EV’s:

• Not to park your Chevy Bolt within 50 feet of other vehiclesin case it catches fire.
• Highlyrecommends that Bolt EV owners not to park within 50 feet of anything you care about.
• Recommends parking on the top floor or on an open-air deck and park 50 feet or more away from another vehicle.
• RequestsBolt EV owners to not leave their vehicle charging unattended, even if they are using a charging station in a parking deck.

General Motors previouslytold Bolt owners

• to onlycharge the battery to 90 percent,
• charge more frequently,
• and avoid depleting the battery below about 70 miles of remaining range.
• And that they should also park the vehicle outside.

The recent General Motorssafety…

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Fire cuts British power imports adding to supply squeeze, soaring prices

[credit: green lantern electric]

The ‘incident’ as they call it is likely to put the affected power link to France out of action for about four weeks [update: up to 6 months]. Is paying in excess of £450 per megawatt-hour of electricity sustainable? This is what can happen when fuel-burning power stations are closed and not replaced, as per political climate obsessions.
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A fire halted a power link between France and Britain on Wednesday, squeezing tight UK electricity supply further and sending prices to near record highs, reports Reuters.

Day-ahead British power prices jumped almost 19% on the news, nearing record highs hit this week exacerbated by low wind supply and soaring gas prices. read more

National Grid said the fire prompted the evacuation of its IFA1 interconnector site in Sellindge in Kent.

California Planted Trees to Fight Climate Change. Those Trees Are Now on Fire.

Smoke from a California wildfire [image credit: BBC]

Factors such as poor forest management policies, as mentioned by the previous US President, and arson don’t get a look in here, as it’s all about ‘fighting climate change’ and ‘the climate crisis’ and suchlike pop slogans. Nevertheless the author makes a good point about some of the hazards of so-called carbon offsets. Quote: “We’ve bought forest offsets that are now burning” – Microsoft’s carbon program manager at a carbon removal panel earlier this month.
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California’s emissions reduction program is going up in smoke because regulators severely underestimated the impact of climate change–fueled wildfires, claims Jacobin mag.

In 2013, California passed a landmark law that capped greenhouse gas emissions, but let companies offset their pollution overages by investing in forest preservation throughout the country — the idea being that trees absorb excess carbon from the atmosphere.

The statute was considered a model initiative to combat climate change, while providing businesses some flexibility in reducing their pollution.

Eight years later, though, there is a big problem: As of last week, there were more than forty-one thousand wildfires across the country, torching more than 4.6 million acres — a swath nearly the size of New Jersey.