Crews extinguished a car fire in a parking garage in Walnut Creek on Wednesday evening and vapors from the fire prompted the county to issue a shelter-in-place for people near the garage. The two-alarm blaze occurred around 5 p.m. in an underground garage at 2121 North California Blvd. after an electric vehicle caught fire, The Contra Costa Fire Protection District said. It was a plug-in hybrid that was charging before the blaze ignited. At 6:33 p.m., the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office issued a shelter-in-place near Mount Diablo Plaza on California Boulevard due to the fire, which is emitting “extremely hazardous smoke,” Con Fire said. Electric vehicle fires take a long time to die down, Con Fire said, and crews will remain at the site as the car batteries continue off-gassing. No one was injured and the exact cause of the fire is under investigation.
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“…a plug-in hybrid that was charging before the blaze ignited.”
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Did civilians have go thru smoke to reach an exit ? ? ?
WHY allow vehicle charging in a below ground semi confined area
limiting egress of “extremely hazardous smoke” ?
I work in this building. I was in the garage next to this one but in order to get out of the street I had to drive through a plume of smoke that actually looked like steam or fog. There was police blocking people from going into the area but nobody warning or notifying those in the building. This is a failure on the building and the responders.
Fortunately my car has good filtration and the windows were up but it smelled terrible and I immediately began coughing. Glad my exposure was extremely minimal but it could have been worse.
Look Gavin! Another one of your little electric cars is emitting dangerous fumes into the environment. Let’s force 100% electric! What a wonderful idea! I never understood the idea of an electric off-road vehicle. From what I’ve experienced, there really aren’t a lot of charging systems on the trails of the back country!! Help me, someone. My Jeep is out of charge!!
The answer is EZ.
Just bring a solar powered charger with you… it will take some time to charge those enormous batteries tho… so bring along enough food & water to last a few weeks and pray for sunny weather.
I’d like to express my sympathy to the EV owner whose vehicle got cooked but would like him to consider….. all the energy consumed to manufacture his vehicle, the extreme environmental damage done to mine the lithium for the battery and the poisonous fumes emitted from his flaming EV plus the cost involved to safely clean up this poisonous mess wherever they wind up dumping it.
Thanks for your concern for the environment but you could’ve driven a Ford F 250 for the rest of your life and done much less environmental damage.
Zero emissions strikes again!
May I suggest climate change enthusiasts invest in a good quality fire extinguisher.
… last week a Danville resident died after his e-vehicle caught fire in his garage while he was in it just pulling in off the street ….. reports of Teslas that can’t open the doors during a fire…..the tech isn’t ready enough for me
My neighbor’s house was a total loss after their electric vehicle caught fire while in their garage. If I ever end up with an electric vehicle (I won’t until there is no other option), it would only be parked on the street in front of my house.
Or the driveway a “Safe” distance from the house.
Or you could park it at the Cal State East Bay, Concord Campus at 4700 Ygnacio Valley Road and save the Injuns the trouble of trying to burn all that wet green grass in the spring.
Li-on batteries are not really ready for “Prime Time” but there is nothing else to replace them with.
My first EV will be a mobility scooter when I’m too old to drive. “Zero emission” is nonsense; maybe not from the vehicle, but the environmental damage from the production of EV’s is real, and the means of producing electricity often results in very significant environmental damage.
Look for scooters that use sealed lead acid batteries which present a much lower fire risk. The world is switching to lithium-ion polymer batteries and so you may end up getting a used scooter that uses sealed lead acid batteries.
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Some scooters have their sealed lead acid batteries in a cartridge that makes it easy to take the battery out of the scooter so you can fold it up for transport. Fortunately, it’s usually easy to open the cartridge so that you can replace old batteries that are no holding much of a charge.
Maybe a 100cc DOHC 4 valves/cylinder two cylinder with a 6 speed manual transmission instead of an electric motor?
Although the fire occurance is infrequent, EV vehicles and EV charging stations present severe fire risks, especially in contained parking garages. Especially in any below grade parking areas where fire fighter access, occupant egress, ventilation, exposure to building protection systems (e.g fire sprinkler systems, access to fire pump rooms, etc.), and fire exposures (such as other vehicles) in close proximity are considered.
Google the fire risks and history associated with these vehicles and charging. It’s not pretty. The fire service is trying to adapt to these challanges (including the use of newly developed suppression technology and appliances – all of which are new purchases for placement in the apparatus).
This whole thing has not been completely thought out. We have the State and (under a previous administration – the Feds) mandating these systems without complete consideration of the short and long term impacts, nor how to address the risks.
I work in fire protection every day.
Typical government. And the sheep just follow.
Was it a No Burn Day?