Lithium-ion battery fires can be extreme and frightening. As somebody who utilized to fix pre-owned smart devices, I’ve extinguished my reasonable share of flaming iPhones with pierced lithium-ion batteries. And the kind of smart device battery in your pocket today resembles what’s within electrical cars. Other than, the EV battery shops way more energy– a lot energy that some firemens are getting unique training to snuff out the extra-intense EV flames that are released by burning EV batteries after roadway mishaps.

If you’ve read the news about EVs, you’ve most likely experienced lots of frightening posts about battery fires on the increase. Just recently, the United States National Transportation Safety Board and the California Highway Patrol revealed they are examining a Tesla semi truck fire that sparked after the car struck a tree. The lithium-ion battery burned for around 4 hours.

Does this mean that you should stress over your individual electrical car as a prospective fire threat? Not truly. It makes more sense to fret about a gas-powered lorry increasing in flames than an electrical automobile, because EVs are less most likely to ignite than their more conventional transport equivalents.

“Fires since of battery production problems are truly extremely unusual,” states Matthew McDowell, a codirector of Georgia Tech’s Advanced Battery. “Especially in electrical automobiles, due to the fact that they likewise have battery management systems.” The software application keeps tabs on the various cells that consist of an EV’s battery and can assist avoid the battery from being pressed beyond its limitations.

How do electrical car fires occur?

Throughout a crash that harms the EV battery, a fire might begin with what’s called thermal runaway. EV batteries aren’t one strong brick. Rather, think about these batteries as a collection of lots of smaller sized batteries, called cells, pushed up versus each other. With thermal runaway, a chain reaction situated in among the cells lights a preliminary fire, and the heat quickly infects each nearby cell up until the whole EV battery is burning.

Greg Less, director of the University of Michigan’s Battery Lab, breaks down EV battery fires into 2 unique classifications: mishaps and making problems. He thinks about mishaps to be whatever from a crash that pierces the battery to a charging accident. “Let’s take those off the table,” states Less. “Because, I believe individuals comprehend that, despite the car type, if you’re in a mishap, there might be a fire.”

While all EV battery fires are tough to put out, fires from making flaws are likely more worrying to customers, due to their seeming randomness. (Think back to when all those Samsung phones needed to be remembered since battery problems made them fire dangers.) How do these uncommon problems with EV battery producing cause fires at what may seem like random minutes?

All of it boils down to how the batteries are crafted. “There’s some level of the engineering that has actually failed and triggered the cell to brief, which then begins creating heat,” states Less. “Heat triggers the liquid electrolyte to vaporize, producing a gas inside the cell. When the heat gets high enough, it ignites, blows up, and after that propagates to other cells.” These sort of problems are most likely what triggered the extremely advertised current EV fires in South Korea, among which harmed over a hundred lorries in a parking area.

How to respond if your EV ignites

According to the National Fire Prevention Agency, if an EV ever ignites while you’re behind the wheel, instantly discover a safe method to pull over and get the vehicle far from the primary roadway. Turn off the engine and make sure everybody leaves the car instantly. Do not postpone things by getting individual possessions, simply go out. Stay over 100 feet far from the burning automobile as you call 911 and demand the fire department.

You should not try to put out the flame yourself. This is a chemical fire, so a couple containers of water will not adequately smother the flames. EV battery fires can take very first responders around 10 times more water to snuff out than a fire in a gas-powered automobile. In some cases the firemens might choose to let the battery simply burn itself out, instead of splashing it with water.

As soon as an EV battery ignites, it’s possible for the chemical fire to reignite after the preliminary burn wanes. It’s even possible for the battery to increase in flames once again days later on. “Both firemens and secondary responders, such as lorry healing or tow business, likewise require to be familiar with the capacity for stranded energy that might stay in the intact parts of the battery,” states Thomas Barth, a private investigator and biomechanics engineer for the NTSB, in an emailed declaration. “This energy can present dangers for electrical shock or trigger the car to reignite.”

It might be appealing to go back into the vehicle and get your wallet or other essential products if the flame grows smaller sized or goes out for a 2nd, withstand the desire. Wait up until your regional fire department gets here to examine the general scenario and provide you the all clear. Remaining far from the automobile likewise assists decrease your capacity for breathing in unhealthy fumes discharged from the battery fire.

How could EV batteries be more secure?

In addition to fast recalls and replacements of possibly defective lithium-ion batteries, both scientists I consulted with were thrilled about future possibilities for a various type of battery, called solid-state, to make EVs much more trustworthy. “These batteries might possibly reveal higher thermal stability than lithium-ion batteries,” states McDowell. “When it warms up a lot, it might simply stay lovely steady.” With a solid-state battery, the liquid electrolyte is no longer part of battery cells, getting rid of the most combustible element of battery style.

These solid-state batteries are currently offered in some smaller sized electronic devices, however producing big variations of the batteries at large scale continues to be a difficulty that EV makers are working to get rid of.

This story initially appeared on wired.com.