DEARBORN, Mich. — New video footage of a fireplace involving a Ford F-150 Lightning this yr highlights a rising concern round electrical autos: risky fires from the batteries that energy them.

The beforehand unreleased footage, which CNBC obtained by means of Michigan’s Freedom of Info Act from the Dearborn Police Division, exhibits smoke billowing from three tightly packed electrical pickups in a Ford Motor holding lot in Dearborn, Michigan.

Moments later, flames shoot a number of ft above the autos, which have been unoccupied. It wasn’t clear based mostly on public paperwork and police video how lengthy the fires burned. Consultants say EV fires can take hours, reasonably than minutes, to extinguish.

EV fires have turn out to be a rising concern as automakers push to extend gross sales of electrical autos and meet tightening emissions requirements.

The Biden administration has set a goal for half of latest autos bought within the U.S. by 2030 to be electrical. Automakers are spending billions of {dollars} to impress their lineups. Nonetheless, there’s been little to no dialogue about first responder coaching for when the autos catch hearth, whether or not on account of a malfunction or, extra generally, a crash.

The Feb. 4 holding lot hearth at Ford’s Rouge Electrical Automobile Middle in Dearborn prompted the corporate to shortly halt manufacturing of the brand new pickup for 5 weeks. The automaker additionally recalled 18 of the autos, which Ford has likened to the Mannequin T by way of significance to the corporate.

Ford recognized the basis trigger as associated to battery cell manufacturing made by provider, SK On.

Cops responding to the blaze described the autos as being “engulfed in flames” and may be heard on video worrying that the autos might “blow up.” Lithium-ion batteries, generally utilized in EVs, may be risky and very tough to place out as soon as on hearth.

“We’re not placing this f—er out. Take a look at it,” mentioned one responding officer in the course of the February F-150 Lightning hearth.

First responders may be heard on video expressing concern about how a lot water is required to place out EV fires and whether or not a particular foam can be required. Additionally they questioned the viability and security of electrical autos.

“They must put like an entire f—ing lake on it to place them out,” the identical officer mentioned in the course of the Feb. 4 occasion.

The footage obtained by CNBC totaled about two hours of video, together with overlapping footage, from 17 police bodycams and automobile dashcams between 3:36 p.m. and 4:22 p.m. ET, in line with time stamps on the bodycam movies.

Images obtained from Dearborn Police by means of a separate Michigan FOIA request present the aftermath of the blaze. One of many three autos is barely recognizable, with its physique almost melted right down to the bottom. The 2 neighboring autos have been additionally closely broken.

“There was just one [vehicle on fire] once we received right here. They’re catching. It is these frickin’ batteries,” that very same responding officer mentioned, in line with the footage.

The F-150 Lightning hearth occurred whereas the automobile was charging in a holding lot throughout a pre-delivery high quality test and was brought on by an inside brief circuit on account of a producing subject when cells within the battery have been at a excessive state of cost, in line with public paperwork related to the recall. Ford mentioned engineers decided there was no proof of a charging fault.

“Along with SK On, we confirmed the basis causes and swiftly applied high quality actions,” Ford mentioned in an announcement to CNBC. “The Rouge Electrical Automobile Middle has been again up and operating since March 13 and is again to full manufacturing and transport autos to clients.”

The fireplace added to ongoing high quality and execution points which have plagued the automaker because it makes an attempt to restructure its enterprise and place itself higher for EVs.

Automobile fires usually are not new. They usually happen in conventional autos with inside combustion engines. However the fires that may end result from EVs such because the F-150 Lightning and their batteries are more and more worrying for first responders throughout the nation, partially as a result of they contain a series response between battery cells often called thermal runaway.

Such fires are also a rising downside for automakers who might lose the momentum they’ve constructed with automobile patrons and climate-conscious lawmakers if the danger continues shaking public confidence within the know-how.

Fires involving EV batteries can burn hotter and longer and require new strategies to extinguish.

“It is a large subject globally,” mentioned Michael O’Brian, board member of the Worldwide Hearth Chiefs Affiliation, who leads hearth and life security. “We have to higher perceive what the perfect processes are by means of testing and analysis with actual firefighters.”

EVs are powered by a collection of battery cells inside an hermetic pack that is designed to stop any substances from passing in or out. The packs are also primarily constructed into the underbodies or frames of the autos, a spot that may be tough for first responders to succeed in. And even when they might simply entry the cells, the “hearth” is definitely a chemical response and far harder to deal with than a standard gasoline hearth.

“You are now coping with a automobile that does not work like anything you have been taught,” mentioned David Dalrymple, a volunteer firefighter in New Jersey who owns a primary response coaching and consulting enterprise referred to as RoadWay Rescue. “It is a completely completely different animal. … The first purpose is to chill it down to remove that chemical response.”

Dalrymple, who additionally serves on a Society of Automotive Engineers committee specializing in EV hearth points and requirements, famous another nations permit first responders to search for what hazardous supplies are in a automobile based mostly on the license plate. An identical system may very well be helpful within the U.S., he mentioned.

Consultants are nonetheless attempting to find out EV hearth incident charges; the info is tough to gather from disparate hearth departments. Automobile fires involving inside combustion engines are way more frequent than EVs, nevertheless consultants anticipate that to repeatedly even out as extra electrified autos are bought. 

Issues with plug-in autos that use such batteries have led automakers together with Ford, Basic Motors, Hyundai and Porsche to recall fashions. GM from 2020 to 2021 needed to recall all of its electrical Chevrolet Bolt fashions constructed as much as that time on account of a battery subject that resulted in a number of reported fires.

In consequence, GM expanded an ongoing nationwide program to teach public security, hearth and emergency service suppliers on the best way to most successfully deal with emergency conditions involving electrical autos.

The state of Virginia has taken it upon itself to coach firefighters. A invoice that requires them to finish a coaching program concerning the danger of electrical automobile fires handed unanimously this yr.

Firefighters more and more are going through the challenges created by EV fires. That is made extra sophisticated by what some consultants say is an absence of laws and requirements, which permits automakers to do as they like concerning the design and rollout of EVs.

For greater than a century, first responders have fairly simply extinguished automobile engine fires by popping the hood and drowning the world in water. That playbook would not work with EVs.

Every automobile is exclusive and will require completely different strategies to extinguish, which implies there are not any set requirements for placing out an EV hearth.

Present greatest practices for an EV hearth, relying on who you converse with, embody submerging the autos in water, piercing the battery pack and inundating it with water, disabling a automobile’s 12-volt circuit, or just letting the fireplace burn till it is out, emitting chemical toxins into the air.

O’Brian, a fireplace chief in suburban Brighton outdoors of Detroit, mentioned the larger the battery, the upper the priority for first responders. He additionally famous that new battery crops to provide the cells for the autos typically price billions of {dollars}, highlighting what he noticed as comparatively little funding being directed to the coaching of fireside departments.

“I proceed to maintain advocating that each state and federal authorities wants to really make investments inside the hearth service on this matter for coaching, greatest practices, lab time,” O’Brian mentioned. “It is so simple as what’s one of the best ways to show up your efforts when uncovered to lithium-ion off-gassing” when the autos catch hearth.

O’Brian mentioned as soon as the thermal runaway begins there’s actually no placing the fireplace out except you cease the chain response of lithium-ion cells from overheating.

It is unclear what number of, if any, individuals have died from an electrical automobile spontaneously catching hearth. There have been stories of deadly fires following crashes, however many occasions EVs have caught hearth when charging and unoccupied.

There’s additionally the danger of reignition: Lithium-ion battery fires can re-engage weeks later with little to no warning. The Sacramento Metropolitan Hearth District responded to such an incident final yr involving a Tesla that had been in an accident three weeks prior.

William Lerner, an impartial security tech inventor and delegate for the Worldwide Group for Standardization, mentioned greatest practices would name for a three-week monitoring interval after a fireplace, with explicit consideration in the course of the first 24 hours.

Lerner, who works intently with first responders and their trainers, expressed concern that first responders could not have the suitable private safety and security gear to deal with the fires. He mentioned the gear used for a standard automobile hearth could not suffice.

“The entire method of coping with that is fully completely different,” he mentioned. “The one similarities are they’ve 4 wheels, and so they appear to be automobiles. It is a fully completely different product, and that is the issue.”

Ford, in its Emergency Response Information for the 2022 Lightning, broadly particulars some points concerning the potential for reignition within the occasion of a fireplace and suggests storing the automobile outdoors or at the very least 50 ft away from different objects. It doesn’t supply an answer for placing out a battery hearth apart from “LARGE quantities of water” or utilizing a “Class ABC powder-type extinguisher to comprise and smother the flames.”

Ford mentioned the corporate “took half in an information-sharing session on the best way to deal with battery fires in summer time 2022 with members of the Dearborn hearth division,” which responded to the blaze in February.

“We proceed to take a look at alternatives to assist educate on this matter,” the automaker mentioned.

Dearborn Police Chief Joseph Murray declined to remark concerning the Feb. 4 F-150 Lightning hearth or any coaching his division has completed for EVs.

Consultants say such coaching for first responders is a begin, but it surely must be continuously up to date and rolled out. There are additionally issues concerning the manpower and talent of fireside departments to deal with EV fires, in line with a number of officers. To not point out the dire circumstances they could be coping with involving automobile occupants, that are their first precedence.

“When you’ve got an EV hearth, you do not have the time to cease and look by means of an emergency response information or to name, you understand, GM, or methodically determine is it a 2012 Tesla or 2022,” Lerner mentioned. “You’ve got received human beings in there that may die. So, you could not have one second to waste as a way to get these human beings out.”

— CNBC’s Lora Kolodny contributed to this report.