The EV in the water bath

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Some fire departments pull an electric car with a burning battery into a container and flood it to cool the battery and keep it from reigniting; the professional fire brigade in Bolzano has had its own container for this since 2018, its commander speaks of three days in the water, and by his account it had needed the container only once by May 2025. In Germany, following the recommendations of the AGBF and the DFV, the fire brigade extinguishes an electric car with water as well, checks the battery with a thermal imaging camera, keeps cooling it as long as it is at 80 °C or more and the temperature is rising, and then hands the vehicle over to a towing company or the owner. The German Social Accident Insurance (DGUV) strongly advises against precautionary submersion and provides for flooding only in absolutely exceptional cases, for a battery that is still actively reacting, and even then only up to the top edge of the battery. As the reason it cites the great logistical effort, especially for disposing of the water, which in the container turns alkaline because of the lithium, with pH values of 10 to 12, and carries pollutant concentrations about ten times higher than extinguishing water applied to the car from the outside. Flooding the car may seem thorough, but without signs of an active reaction a monitored dry quarantine is enough, and flooding then only adds effort and more contaminated water.

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