standby for drill initiation what you are seeing as a electric vehicle command go for e on fire this experiment in collaboration with the Florida Division of State Fire Marshals is an attempt to understand a dangerous phenomenon surrounding lithium ion batteries there's over a billion batteries a year put into the general population it takes every aspect of Our Lives from our Smartwatch our cell phones tablets appliances in your kitchen unlike regular fires they burn extremely intense with very little warning and are incredibly difficult to put out the general public needs to know what they have what they already have in their household and potentially what they're buying I don't mean that all these batteries are unsafe uh what I mean by that is there is a potential that if there is a problem or if you're misusing your batteries or you have an aging battery or you're using the wrong Chargers that you're going to have a problem and the problem is going to be a lot bigger than what you think it may be and it could be a deadly problem to understand these risks the firefighter cancer initiative at the University of Miami and their collaborators conducted tests on both individual battery cells on a full electric vehicle for This research demonstration lithium ion batteries in this vehicle are of the pouch type and modular in design and consist of many smaller pouches lithium ion batteries are a challenge in the United States and certainly for us in the fire service it's a fairly new type of energy that that the fire service is starting to see we're seeing it in everything from a cell phone uh to micro Mobility devices but also EV Vehicles we're going to break a lithium ion battery down to a one cell battery commonly know as the 8 650 battery it's the most common battery uh there's about 8,000 or more of these in a EV in the battery coils the cell is placed on a hot plate exploding with significant Force within seconds remnants found 30 ft away now imagine the potential danger of thousands of these cells in larger devices or Vehicles as the electric vehicle catches fire we see high pressure gas expanding from the cells and just as we saw earlier batteries shooting out in all directions complicating the situation these fires burn intense the amount of water to fight them shows it basically 500 to 750 gallons of water uh for a normal uh family siiz car when you're starting to see a lot of the stats uh with a typical EV fire that there was 30,000 gallon juice there was 40 there was 20 uh it's important to realize that really the water if it's not reaching the cells and cooling it down you're not really putting the fire out Florida's division of the State Fire Marshall's office is collaborating with Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami the goal is to understand the risk to First Responders electric vehicle fires actually have metals and metals are easily connected to cancer development and so we really want to look at how how and what types of metals these firefighters come across in that fire and what we could do to ultimately protect them and the community where they're turning off these fires this is a huge wakeup call for us the quicker that we can identify what we need to to handle these types of fires the quicker we're going to keep our community safe the quicker we're going to make our firefighter safe right now though there are steps you can take to protect yourself and your family use only manufacturers approved Chargers and cables for your devices remember some of these batteries are so specialized they come with specialized chargers for a reason so that they don't overheat so that they're charged at a constant rate avoid overcharging your devices or leaving them plugged in overnight keep batteries away from heat sources in direct sunlight dispose of old or damaged batteries properly at designated recycling centers be aware of signs of battery failure such as swelling overheating or unusual loaders if you suspect a lithium ion battery fire one Evacuate the area immediately two call 911 three do not attempt to fight the fire yourself it's great technology it really is it's how it's being applied and it's happening so quickly that I don't think the fire service is prepared for and we're really behind the eightball we're trying to play catchup I think people just need to be aware and people are starting to become aware we need to be very proactive and uh try to really embed this into our culture uh what the dangers are by understanding the risks and taking simple precautions we can all help prevent lithium ion battery fires and keep our community safer stay informed stay vigilant and stay safe [Music]