Transcript:

Research shows that electric vehicles are far less likely to catch fire than gas-powered cars. But firefighters must be prepared even for unlikely events.

So Jack Volz of Safety and Security Consultation Specialists provides EV safety training to first responders in his home state of Minnesota and beyond.

In his classes, he teaches trainees how EVs work.

Volz: “A lot of the responders don’t understand how … these vehicles are put together, the amount of safeties that are built into them. They’re actually an extremely safe vehicle.”

Then they learn how to respond to emergencies involving EVs. They’re shown how to disable the cars and what to do in the rare case an EV does catch fire.

Volz: “The tactics we need to use to extinguish or control this fire are different than what we’re used to using on an internal combustion engine car.”

For example, he says firefighters must know where an EV battery is housed.

Volz: “Most commonly it is underneath the car, so … just trying to cool that.”

Volz says that as EVs rapidly gain popularity, first responders need to know how to handle them.

Volz: “If we know the hazards and we know how to control them, we can be very safe when we’re working with any incident.”

Reporting credit: Sarah Kennedy / ChavoBart Digital Media