A Fire at Loch Alpine

At the start of this new year, a barking dog and a white wisp of smoke heralded a new era in firefighting challenges for Washtenaw fire departments.

On Wednesday, January 3, more than a dozen fire trucks, as well as sheriffs, ambulances, EMTs, and twenty-two firefighters, responded to a house fire in Loch Alpine, a Scio Township subdivision off Huron River Dr. The difference between this call and any other residential fire was the fact that it involved two electric vehicles—a brand-new Tesla Model Y and a five-year-old Volvo XC60 plug-in hybrid. It was the first electric vehicle (EV) fire that local fire departments had faced—and it was a daunting challenge.

“Electric vehicles have 100 percent become a burgeoning issue for the fire service,” says Ann Arbor fire chief Mike Kennedy. “Although they currently account for a small percentage of vehicle fires—remember, they haven’t been around for more than ten years—they are low-frequency/high-consequence events.”

EV fires pose additional dangers to first responders: electric shocks, burns from extremely high temperatures, toxic fumes and runoff, and the possibility that the battery could seem to be extinguished only to reignite later.

Before January 3, the Ann Arbor Fire Department had fielded only two calls related to burning lithium-ion batteries, one for a scooter and the other for a wheelchair. But the department had purchased a costly fire blanket and had strategized plans for EV firefighting, particularly in parking garages. “But this was our first encounter with a burning electric vehicle—let alone two—and the procedures are very different from fires involving gasoline-powered cars,” Kennedy says. “Thermal runaway in lithium-ion batteries happens very quickly. No amount of water can suppress that kind of fire.”

Also responding to the Loch Alpine emergency were firefighters and equipment from Scio Township, Webster Township, Ann Arbor Township, Chelsea, and Dexter. It was a daunting introduction to fighting EV-related fires.

Six days later, Scio Township fire chief Andrew Houde submitted a request to buy a state-of-the-art water tanker, this one equipped with a hook and winch that can be used to tow burning EVs. “We’re also looking into buying a fire blanket,” he says. And he’s fielded numerous calls from other departments to discuss the fire and how it was handled.

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January 3 was Marvin Boluyt’s first official day of retirement. The former Washtenaw Community College professor of anatomy and physiology decided to forego his usual ambitious early-morning exercise regimen and “see what it’s like to be retired.”

He rose later than usual, unplugged the Tesla’s charger, and plugged in the Volvo’s. Sometime mid-morning, still dressed in his sleepwear, he began cooking breakfast. Suddenly the dog began barking—“the kind of bark that indicates a delivery person is approaching,” he says.

Empty nesters, Marvin and his wife, Drina Oliverio Boluyt, share their 1960s-era brick ranch with their rescue mutt, Byxie. The house has a walk-out basement and a garage full of skis, bicycles, yard equipment, tools, and shelves lined with cartons and bins.

As Byxie continued barking, he looked out the kitchen’s bay window and noticed “feathery smoke, the kind you’d see if someone was burning leaves next door.” Not terribly concerned, but hoping to appease his dog, he went to the living room and peered out at the street. He saw nothing.

But Byxie continued to bark. On his third trip to the windows, he saw flames shooting out of his garage.

“There’s a fire! We’ve got to get out!” he yelled to Drina, who was at the other end of the house. While he dialed 911, she rushed into the basement to retrieve as many family photo albums as she could carry, and the couple—and Byxie—hurried out the back door and around to the front of the house.

“The dispatcher was terrific,” he recalls. “She stayed on the line with me, asking all the right questions, making sure we got outside safely and first responders were here before she hung up.”

The first sheriff deputy arrived in less than ten minutes. By then, both EVs were on fire and flames were shooting out of the roof. Fire trucks and ambulances from Scio and the surrounding communities rapidly followed. “We have a robust mutual aid [system] countywide,” Chief Houde says. “We work together on major incidents.”

The firefighters hitched the burning Volvo to a pickup truck and dragged it down the street, where it was allowed to burn itself out. Then, protected by a cooling stream of water, the firefighters hooked up the Tesla and dragged it into the driveway. There it melted into barely recognizable hulk.

While firefighters poured water onto the house, some worked indoors and others climbed onto the roof to chop holes that would allow thick black smoke to pour out of the attic. “We needed to ensure that all the fire in the attic was extinguished,” Houde says.

Hours later, the garage was a charred and smoking black cave. Half the ceiling had collapsed into the kitchen, living room, and bedroom. (“Interesting that our Christmas tree, which is in the corner of the living room, was untouched,” Drina observes.) The interior was covered in thick layers of soot, wet insulation, fallen waterlogged wallboard, and shingles.

“We are immensely grateful to everyone who came to our rescue,” Marvin Boluyt says. “And we’re equally grateful for all the love and support we’ve received from friends and even strangers.”

“Don’t forget to mention how our dog saved the day!” Drina adds.

    

By the time the first sheriff deputy arrived, both EVs were on fire and flames were shooting through the garage roof. Firefighters hitched the Volvo to a pickup truck and dragged it down the street, where it was allowed to burn itself out. Then, protected by a cooling stream of water, they hooked up the Tesla and dragged it into the driveway, where it melted into a barely recognizable hulk.

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“There’s a lot of debate about whether or not to shoot a lot of water at EV fires,” Kennedy says. “The worst fires occur when the car batteries are fully charged—they take a very long time to burn out.”

He adds that fire departments elsewhere have poured 30,000 to 60,000 gallons of water on burning EVs without extinguishing the battery, because it’s sealed in a metal casing.

Fire-retardant blankets won’t put out a battery fire either, but can stop it spreading. “Right now, we believe the best procedure is to cover the vehicle with a blanket and tow the car out of the garage, so we can work on saving the house,” Kennedy says.

Kennedy adds that his department is particularly concerned about EV fires in downtown parking garages, hence the investment (“about $3,000”) for the fire-retardant blanket. “This way we can isolate the car and protect the surroundings.”

An EV’s high-voltage battery is composed of many cells packed tightly together inside a watertight, fire-resistant box. If a single cell ignites, it can produce a tremendous amount of gas and heat (up to 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit) in tenths of a second and spread to neighboring cells. The chemical reaction doesn’t require oxygen from the atmosphere to sustain itself and can quickly become impossible to extinguish with traditional firefighting methods.

Fortunately, EV fires are as rare as they are devastating: a Swedish study released last year found that gas- or diesel-powered vehicles were twenty-nine times more likely to catch fire. And in the Boluyts’ case, neither EV’s battery caused the fire: fire inspectors determined that it started where Marvin had plugged the Volvo’s charger into a 110-volt extension cord.

“My 220-volt plug needed work, so I was using a 120-volt plug temporarily, until I could work on it,” he admits. “I knew the situation wasn’t optimal, but figured if there was a problem, our circuit breaker would shut off, and I would work on the plug in my retirement.”

The Boluyts picked up their Tesla several months ago at the showroom on Jackson Rd. The person who answered the phone there declined to say whether employees address charging protocols with new customers. “The directions are online,” she said.

At Sesi, owner Joe Sesi says, EV buyers get “an overview of how these cars differ from gasoline-powered cars. Our number one rule is to plug the car directly into a 220-volt wall outlet, not a 120-volt—and never, ever use an extension cord. Vehicles take a lot of juice, so a dedicated plug is optimal.”

He adds that the owner’s manual explains how to charge the vehicles safely—“but it’s a complex process, and most people don’t understand that charging isn’t a simple matter. Car manufacturers and dealers need to do a better job of educating their customers.” Eighteen percent of Sesi’s sales are EVs or hybrid vehicles, versus the national dealership average of 7 percent.

“I bought my first EV ten years ago—a Volt—and I thought I knew how all this worked,” Marvin says. “I was wrong. I’ve learned a valuable and costly lesson. My take-away lessons are to minimize the number of plug junctions (and not to use an extension cord), as well as to keep flammable materials away from the junctions.”

The Boluyts still own the Volt but it’s in the shop with an uncertain prognosis, so they were left without transportation. Fortunately, after hearing about the Boluyts’ fire, Sesi had his sales manager, Glen Gottfried, provide them with a loaner car. “I was flabbergasted. And grateful,” Marvin says. “Our policy didn’t include car rental coverage.”

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“To my knowledge, our home and auto policies don’t charge more for electric vehicles than for any others,” says an administrator for Farmers Insurance, which covered the couple’s home. “So many factors go into policies, so they’re all individual.”

The house is salvageable, Marvin says, “but it will take a lot of work.” Farmers partners with ServiceMaster, a restoration company that will clean photographs and as many possessions as possible. They’ll even catalog books—the Boluyts have a lot of them—and repair or replace them. At some point, the rebuilding process will begin. Meanwhile, the insurer has put them up at the downtown Residence Inn while it searches for an appropriate rental.

“We will definitely buy another Volvo,” Drina says. Marvin says they may eventually get another Tesla, but for now, they’ve bought a newer used Volt.

“In some ways, we were guinea pigs, providing training opportunities for future EV fires,” he adds. “I would not have chosen to learn a valuable lesson this way, but we are immensely grateful to all the first responders—and we are alive and well. In a situation like this, the loss of material things doesn’t matter.”

“A century ago, fire departments had to adapt to cars when they replaced horses and buggies,” Scio’s Chief Houde says. “Electric vehicles are presenting new challenges, and we’ll adapt again.”