HINGHAM, Mass. — As electric vehicles become more common, so do the challenges facing firefighters called to respond when these cars catch fire. One Massachusetts firefighter is helping departments across the state tackle the problem with a new invention aimed at making electric vehicle (EV) fires safer and more manageable.
Hingham Firefighter Ryan Twombly saw firsthand how dangerous and time-consuming EV fires can be, WCVB reports. Traditional tactics often leave firefighters dangerously close to burning batteries for extended periods.
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“What I saw was firefighters were way too exposed to the hazard. And we were in the hazard zone for way too long,” Twombly told WCVB. “And [I] said, ‘You know what? We don’t need to be tilting the car. We need to have something to slide underneath the vehicle and suppress the hazard from a distance.’”
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Twombly’s solution: a 40-inch metal pipe, outfitted with hose attachments on each end and slits running along one side — designed to work like a heavy-duty lawn sprinkler. Firefighters can slide the device, a tactical thermal reducing cylinder (TTRC), underneath a burning EV and direct water right to the vehicle’s battery, cooling it more efficiently and reducing the risk of injury. The invention eliminates the need to tip a vehicle on its side to get water to the battery.
The device is now equipped on all of Hingham’s fire engines and has been adopted by more than a dozen other fire departments across Massachusetts. Most recently, Waltham firefighters put Twombly’s tool to the test when they were called to extinguish a fire in an electric Jeep.
