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Abstinence701 t1_j7nxk97 wrote

Reply to comment by 2lovesFL in 4 people taken to hospital after battery fire forces United flight to return to San Diego by Icewear_Daddy

Yeah, water and electrical fire, traditionally great mix. Like smoking and fuel tanks , or ammonia and bleach.

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biggsteve81 t1_j7nytps wrote

The general procedure for most lithium battery fires is to submerge them in water, believe it or not.

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Abstinence701 t1_j7o01ge wrote

I didn’t know. Wouldn’t that be dangerous though? You’d have to pick up the burning thing and place it in water.

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biggsteve81 t1_j7o0fby wrote

How else do you plan to extinguish it? A regular ABC fire extinguisher is not very effective on lithium battery fires, and they can be quite persistent. That's why fire departments often use thousands of gallons of water on an EV battery fire.

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spirituallyinsane t1_j7qlawi wrote

The "fire" is largely a heat problem. The battery is typically already short-circuited internally, which causes it to heat up. This results in boiling and vaporizing internal electrolyte, which catches fire in air. Dunking it in water primarily cools the battery to stop this process. It also short-circuits it to some extent, but the water absorbs the energy of that short circuit effectively.

Lithium-ion batteries contain a lot of energy for their size, but it's nothing like the energy available from household power circuits, which as you say, don't mix well with water.

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