We saw an interesting press release from the National Fire Protection Association, they released an EV firefighting video game for free with the help of a private developer and a Department of Energy grant. So far, more than a million firefighters have used the game to learn about fighting EV fires.
Well, that pitch was irresistible to us. We wanted to know more about how EVs work in emergencies, and we get to play video games to do it? Awesome, count me in, let the games begin. Here’s how the game plays and what we learned from it.
Ya know, we actually don’t use fire blankets where I’m at! The training videogame also made no mention of them, and it is very recent, released last year.
Interesting, right? There’s a huge amount of variation for firefighting techniques nationwide for EVs. I’ve seen them used, but only out West.
As for confusing backdraft and flashover, no, I got that correct. To the best of my admittedly very spotty memory :)
See this article, it means different things different places, how I learned it is that every backdraft is a flashover, but not every flashover is a backdraft. If that’s wrong, take it up with the lieutenant who trained me, who was incidentally stellar at his job: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backdraft
Flashover and backdraft are two different things with two very different mechanisms behind them. The naming of each are standardized across the nation as each academy should be teaching to the NFPA 1001 standard at a minimum.
In order to address that with your lieutenant, I would direct him to NFPA 921.
Edit: I should have lead with… thanks! I appreciate a second set of eyes on it, I want everything in my articles to be factually correct. If ever I’m way off in content I share, please do tell me, and I’ll correct it.
Tell you what, to avoid confusion, I’ll simplify the language in that paragraph, it seems to be distracting a few folks.
I should mention, my experience is very old, I haven’t held a valid cert in decades - so, if there is a flaw in my knowledge, that wouldn’t be my old LT’s fault (as our training was broadly excellent), that is almost certainly foggy memory.
In this case, I’m still pretty sure I’ve described the behavior correctly. I’m removing the reference to avoid distraction, but I’m pretty sure it is correct as-is. See bolded text if you only want to read a single sentence about it.
The definitions you’ve linked above do not contradict what I’ve posted below or how I’ve described the behavior in the article. You’re running a narrow definition, I’m running a broad definition, the distinction is really fine and neither is wrong.
From the linked Wikipedia article I linked above: