The January/February2020 edition of the NFPA Journal devotes 12 pages to a discussion of the firefighting hazards associated with fires in electric vehicles (EV) and energy storage systems (ESS). The articles outline both the problems faced by firefighters with these newer concepts and the groups, including the Society of Automotive Engineers, the Fire Protection Research Foundation and the NFPA, which are researching long-term solutions. The issue is one of growing importance for first responders – but it's also one with ever-evolving hazards and response recommendations. Here, we'll catalog existing resources, including the most recent NFPA information and my previous series on this topic, which outlines the potential hazards of EVs and ESS and the tactics employed both in the United States and Europe to help mitigate these hazards and attempt to make these scenes safer for you, as responding firefighter/paramedics.  

VIDEOS: Boston firefighters battled a 4-alarm fire in the city's South Boston neighborhood, and spent most of the evening working to put out remaining hotspots. The fire started in the basement of an unoccupied building that is being renovated on East 7th Street shortly after 5 p.m., and quickly spread to the floors above as well as an attached building that was occupied, Boston Fire officials said. "It's a building under construction, so there was no plaster on the walls," said Jack Dempsey, Boston Fire Department's Chief of Operations. "So the fire started in the basement area and quickly went up throughout the building, because there's nothing to contain it." Geoffrey Spooner, who lives three doors down, ran outside with his family when he heard the commotion.  

VIDEO: The Santa Maria Airport just purchased new equipment that allows the fire department to test its fire-fighting foam, while protecting the environment. The device meets a new FAA regulation regarding foam testing for the airport fire department. It's called NoFoam System. The device is used to test the concentration of water versus foam. The Santa Maria Fire Department said that usually for fuel fires, like ones involving aircraft, the concentration should normally be about 3 to 6 percent foam and the rest water. In the past, testing the concentration meant allowing the foam to run off in the concrete. The new device means testing the foam will not affect groundwater or small animals. "We are not putting that foam out on the ground anymore," said Mike Farmer, Battalion Chief for the City of Santa Maria Fire Department. "It's actually running through the system that we purchased, keeps the foam inside the vehicle, and doesn't put the foam out into the environment."  

In response to a deadly fire in a Minneapolis high-rise last fall, a group of Minnesota lawmakers on Wednesday, Feb. 5, proposed legislation that would require nearly all tall apartment buildings to install automatic sprinkler systems. Five people died Nov. 27, 2019, in an early-morning fire at Cedar High Apartments, a 25-story building near downtown Minneapolis. Those deaths could have been prevented if the 1960s-era building had sprinklers on its upper floors, Sen. Kari Dziedzic, DFL-Minneapolis, said at a Capitol news conference announcing the bill. "Sprinklers are the best protection you can have," Steve Zaccard, St. Paul's former fire marshal, told reporters. A 1979 law requires all new government-owned buildings to install sprinkler systems, but up to 40 buildings constructed before that year do not have sprinklers. Twenty-six of those high-rises are in Minneapolis, Dziedzic said.  

VIDEO: Two Papillion firefighters are still recovering after what is called a smoke explosion during a fire Saturday night. A video of that blast is shown from a Sarpy County deputy's cruiser cam. A blast of fire and air that caught three Papillion firefighters off guard and too close. One of them is Joe Lapuzza silhouetted against the flames. Joe LaPuzza said, "And I shut the water off so I could put my gloves on and advance up to the door and the next thing I knew I was thrown back and felt like I was on fire. I didn't know what happened I just know it wasn't good." The six-year Papillion firefighter suffered burns to the top of his hands that are healing with pig's skin. Though the gloves were off this is the protective gear he wore and Chief Bill Bowes says that worked as designed. Chief Bill Bowes said," Just a little bit of singing here. It kept all the heat from him so he got not burns other than what was exposed."  

A Commonwealth Court panel Wednesday thwarted an attempt by the state attorney general's office to forcibly dissolve a volunteer fire company that refused to participate in a government-organized merger. The ruling means that, for now at least, Independent Fire Company No. 1 in South Williamsport can continue to exist as a nonprofit entity and might even resume fighting fires outside the borough. As Judge Patricia A. McCullough noted in the state court's opinion, Independent came to be in the AG's crosshairs after it refused to join the borough's two other fire companies to form the South Williamsport Fire Department in 2016. Borough council then passed an ordinance barring Independent from answering emergency calls in town.