Written by Oleksandr Lugovyi, instagram: @oleks_lugovyi
We’ve all been hearing in the news lately about the colossal fire that’s engulfed Luton Airport’s two car parks on Tuesday 10th October, its been estimated that around 1500 cars may have been damaged by the fire, however, the cause of it has been up for debate and some tabloids state it was an electric car that started, whilst others have stated that it may have been a combustion engine vehicle that caused the fire.
A recent news report from the Independent and the BBC stated that it may have been a diesel-powered car that caused the fire, but the engine’s combustion type wasn’t the fault but more the car’s 12-volt battery system which is to blame. AA technical expert Greg Carter stated that the most common cause of car fires is more often than not associated with electrical faults within the vehicle’s battery/charging system.
From a scientific perspective, it is unlikely that a diesel engine itself could be the cause since diesel is a more stable and much less-flammable substance compared to petrol, diesel works primarily off compression as opposed to ignition (use of spark plugs) found in typical petrol engine cars. Picking up from what Greg Carter said for a diesel to catch fire an “intense amount of pressure or sustained flame” is needed to ignite diesel. There are some rare instances where you can get a “diesel runaway” where the engine draws extra fuel from unintended sources and sees an increase in rpm and power, however, this is usually resolved by cutting off the fuel supply or easier cutting off the air going into the engine. If that’s not possible then the engine would usually destroy itself internally and seize.
However, this unfortunate event has sparked two queries, the first being the lack of safety equipment and procedures in place to prevent this sort of incident from developing; and the second if the cause of the fire was an electrical fault associated with the vehicle’s battery/charging system then what does this mean for electric powered cars and how safe are they at preventing something like this from occurring?
In another news article, a lead firefighter mentioned that if sprinklers were implemented within the car park, then this incident may have reduced the impact on cars damaged if not prevented the entire incident from occurring in the first place, the car park itself was only a couple years old, it was modern, yet modern safety equipment was not integrated within the design of the car park itself. Which does raise concern for the security and well-being of those using said facilities. The damage and toll this would take on insurance companies having to pay out for people’s damaged pride and joys will most likely go into the millions, which in turn will also impact us, the public when it comes to renewing our car insurance in the future. It has been estimated by Confused.com that the average car insurance price has increased by £338 over the past year, whereas other comparison providers have seen an increase of 20% and an average increase of £657. As such, the fire would see an increase in claims being made which in turn will have a socio-economic impact on the public, drivers, and insurance companies. Not to mention the negative impact this would also have on the environment, the number of toxic flames and gasses expelled into the atmosphere from the 1500 melted cars will contribute negatively to damaging the environment and reducing the use of more resources to rebuild, remove, destroy, or recycle the damaged vehicles and infrastructure.
Let’s address the other elephant in the room, electric cars, ever since they have become the new hit trend for environmentalists and hipsters thinking they are saving the planet by charging their electric cars to a power outlet which draws its energy by burning fossil fuels. They have witnessed a number of controversial cases, and I’m here to add more to it, or shall I say raise a question about it. Earlier I spoke about “diesel runaways” and the fire being caused by the vehicles charging system, now electric cars are nothing but electric and the entire system works off a gigantic charging system with some having thousands upon thousands of fuel cells. It’s no surprise that when an electric car is damaged or is in an accident of some sort a specialist unit must come out to deal with the dangers it possesses, with average combustion engine cars a bunch of water will usually put it out, but not with electric power cells. They need to be taken out using specialist equipment and foams to neutralise the issue. We all remember some years back the host of The Grand Tour, Richard Hammond, had his unfortunate crash where he rolled a Rimac Concept One down a Hillclimb in Switzerland, thankfully he survived and has gone on to produce other amazing content for us car fanatics. However, the crash had pierced one of the Rimac’s fuel cells which led to a thermal runaway. This is like how a diesel runaway works but the only difference is that the lithium-ion cells become uncontrollable, self-heating and produce a chain reaction effect until all the cells are used up. The Rimac hadn’t stopped catching fire until 5 days after the initial crash, but Hammond’s colleague James May described it best in the episode. The real question here is, are electric cars and lithium-ion batteries a long-term solution or are they merely a tech gimmick with great advertising appealing to the naive and gullible?
My issue here is this, we’ve excelled as a species, and created many ideas, cars, and technology; and yet we still for some reason negate the elements of creating preventive measures for something like this to happen. Make no mistake manufacturers such as Tesla, Rimac and Audi go to great lengths to ensure their vehicles are tested and safe to the public, but all it takes is one wrong thing to happen which can lead to dire consequences. Hopefully, the Luton Airport fire incident will lead to the development of safety measures being implemented to minimise such a catastrophe from developing again in the future.
Sources:
https://news.sky.com/story/why-has-the-price-of-car-insurance-gone-up-so-much-12910284
https://www.confused.com/car-insurance/guides/has-car-insurance-gone-up
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-67077996
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/what-caused-the-luton-airport-fire-b2429048.html
Bleeding Edge Digital 