20:00 12-06-2026

Electric car fires: why an extinguisher may not be enough and what to do

An EV battery can flare up again hours after the visible fire is gone. Here is why thermal runaway changes the rules of firefighting and what owners should do after a serious incident.

Burning electric cars call for a different approach than fires in conventional combustion vehicles. A firefighter in this video explains why an EV battery can flare up again even after the flames on the outside have already been knocked down. The main culprit is thermal runaway in the lithium-ion cells.

The issue is that a high-voltage battery is made up of many cells packed into a tough, sealed casing. If a single cell is damaged and starts to overheat, it releases a huge amount of heat and gas. That is enough to warm up the neighbouring cells and trigger a chain reaction. The familiar logic of “douse it and you are done” simply does not work here.

Access is another problem. Water is still the main way to cool the pack, but it needs to be aimed not at the body or the underside, but as close to the actual cells as possible. Foam and powder extinguishers do not solve the core issue: the reaction inside a cell continues without any oxygen from the outside. That is why firefighters rely on a different playbook — prolonged water cooling, thermal cameras to track heat spots, isolating the car and monitoring it long after the visible flames are gone.

For the owner, the key takeaway is simple: after a serious crash, a hard underbody hit or a fire, an EV cannot be considered safe just because there is no flame on the outside. The car has to be checked by professionals, and until then it should be kept at a safe distance from buildings and other vehicles. Reignition can easily happen well after the car has been towed away from the scene.