Brilliant idea – will the Ikea sack solve the problem of burning e-cars?

Statistically, electric cars do not catch fire as often as combustion engines. But when it happens, the problems begin: they are immensely difficult to erase. However, a German fire brigade apparently had a brilliant idea and is now selling “fire extinguishing bags”.

Although it is not yet certain that an electric car caused the catastrophic fire on the Fremantle Highway freighter, the discussion about the fire safety of electric cars has flared up again. Rightly so. Because conventional extinguishing methods can only contain electrical fires to a limited extent and not permanently. It’s easy to imagine what that means on a ship. Not much has been made public about ship safety devices, but it’s safe to assume that shipping companies aren’t particularly well prepared for EV fires. Too complex, too expensive. And this is where the so-called “Recover E Bag” comes into play. This is an oversized bag in which the burning e-car can be packed. The extinguishing bag for e-cars is specially designed to react quickly to electrical fires in e-vehicles, because transporting a steel pan to the accident site for effective cooling of the accident vehicle often takes too long or is completely impossible Of course, if a ship catches fire, the fire brigade doesn’t come,” says Harald Samoiski from the Bad Homburg fire brigade, who developed the bag together with fire brigade comrades and brought it to market together with a company from the Westerwald. Then it is important to stabilize the situation quickly, and that means cooling the vehicle permanently. In his opinion, the Recover E Bag is currently the only way to get a burning e-car under control on ships. The system is designed in such a way that a trained team can use the 2,000 euro bag in three to four minutes. Depending on the size of the vehicle, the bag is filled with around 1,500 liters of water; at sea it can also be salt water. Before the car can be put in the bag, it is cooled down to a maximum of 70 degrees so that it can be approached. “Then we can lift the vehicle on the B-pillar so far that the bag can be pulled under from behind. After that, the other side of the vehicle is lifted and the bag pulled up. It is important to know that e-car fires are not explosive, it is important to keep the battery cool so that it does not ignite again,” explains Samoiski. And: “We cannot “extinguish the car” with our system, but intervene in the battery fire, which continues after conventional extinguishing measures. Not only on ships, not only for e-cars. The bag can also be used in other hard-to-reach places , such as in underground car parks, where you also cannot use a steel tray into which you could lift the car. The sack is also valued by towing companies because of its small pack size and ease of use. And you can also use it to fight fires in combustion engines. “When a car recently caught fire in Bad Homburg, we quickly packed it in the sack and wrapped it in fire-extinguishing foam so that no petrol fumes could form,” says Harald Samoiski. And how did the anti-inflammatory idea come about? Grandma and Grandpa packed Harald Samoiski’s daughter her bobby car in a large Ikea bag – that’s when the spark jumped over.(SPX)
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