Check out this - or what was - a Rivian dealership in Franklin, Tennessee, three days ago.
GlobalTrvl was nice enough to drop this on me yesterday, and besides being pretty flame-tastic, it has an interesting element I hadn't heard about before.
In the wee hours of Saturday morning, the Franklin Fire Department got a call about a fire at the dealership involving vehicles, and off they went to take care of it.
One firefighter was injured after multiple electric vehicles caught on fire at a dealership in Franklin early Saturday morning.
Crews were called to the Rivian dealership and service center on 5th Avenue North around 1:20 a.m.
According to the Franklin Fire Department, crews arrived to find four electric vehicles on fire outside the building with flames flowing into a service bay.
Pretty spectacular footage from the scene.
The call initially had come in as a dumpster fire.
...“The district captain was the first one on the scene, recognized it was not a dumpster, but three vehicles with flames extending into the building, so we quickly upgraded it to a commercial structure fire,” said Battalion Chief Jospeh Polenzani with the Franklin Fire Department. “From our point of view, a dumpster fire gets one apparatus; commercial fire gets 8 apparatus, 2 command officers and an EMS unit as well.”
...Even though saving the structure was a top priority, Polenzani added the response was equally as important because the nature of electric vehicle fires can be “potentially stubborn.”
However, officials said the good news is that none of the batteries were breached, causing what is known as “thermal runaway,” which can cause explosions, intense heat and is difficult, if not impossible, to extinguish.
“We did have heat from the fire impinging on the batteries, themselves, but none of them came open and went into thermal runaway,” explained Polenzani. “The primary difference between an EV fire and an internal combustion engine fire is the battery pack that is usually found in the floor board of the cars. As long as the fire doesn’t enter the battery pack, we can suppress it the same way we would any other vehicle. The problem is when the battery pack is damaged, it will go into thermal runaway, and there is no real way to cool it or interrupt that cycle. At that point, the only thing we can do is let it burn.”
Thankfully, the one firefighter who'd been reported injured was taken to the hospital for evaluation and later released.
What was interesting about the Franklin FD is what they used to fight this fire, which I hadn't heard about before. It's something called a 'Turtle Nozzle' and has been developed specifically for fighting lithium-ion battery fires in vehicles.
The Franklin Fire Department extinguished a fire early this morning involving several electric vehicles and part of the Rivian dealership and service center on 5th Avenue North.
— Franklin Fire Department, Franklin, TN (@FranklinFire) November 1, 2025
Firefighters were dispatched at 1:19 AM to the business at 305 5th Avenue North. They arrived to… pic.twitter.com/mc2TmiNWD1
...Firefighters were dispatched at 1:19 AM to the business at 305 5th Avenue North. They arrived to find four electric vehicles on fire outside the building, with flames extending into a service bay. Crews quickly contained the fire, limiting interior damage. Firefighters remained on scene for more than four hours to monitor and cool the vehicles’ battery packs, which can reignite or continue burning for an extended period. They used a Turtle Nozzle, designed to help firefighters control and extinguish electric vehicle fires....
Cool, huh? The FFD thoughtfully included a video explaining what this technological advancement was in their Xweet about the fire.
The firefighter narrating explains what their main problem is - they're unable to put the fires out. So they have to concentrate on containment, and that's what these new devices help do for them. There's the Bridgehill Car Fire Blanket, which is kind of self-explanatory, and the Turtle Nozzle. This is so simple, but absolutely brilliant.
The Turtle Nozzle enables firefighters to spray underneath the battery in an attempt to keep it cool during a fire and prevent thermal runaway from beginning.
Every asset helps. As one commenter said, EV fires, once that battery takes off, are unforgiving and unquenchable.
Rural fire fighter here we had an electric vehicle fire on a highway it took us 10hrs to get it under control plus a Mutual Aid call to a Tribal Fire Dept for additional tankers
Techniques and technology for fighting lithium-ion battery fires are becoming a must-have across even rural departments, and reports of battery-related fires are growing in number. In neighboring Hendersonville, TN, the fire department had seen more fires due to the batteries, and across a spectrum of devices, not only EVs - everything from phone chargers to golf carts and in between.
The city of Hendersonville is seeing an uptick in lithium battery fires.
In fact, the fire department said a majority of their recent fires have likely been caused by a lithium battery overheating.
“I want to say 3 out of the last 5 have been related to potential lithium-ion batteries. It’s new technology, so with new technology comes new problems,” said Hendersonville Fire Chief Scotty Bush.
...He warned of after-market phone chargers and newer accessories, like e-bikes or scooters.
“When you’re charging those things, keep them out of the house. If you’re going to do it in the garage, keep an eye on them. If they’re overheating, if the battery looks swollen, (stop charging them),” said Bush.
Battery fires require a different approach for firefighters, according to Chief Bush, especially electric vehicle fires. What sticks out most: how quickly these lithium fires can spread.
“It’s just a matter of (a) minute, 2 minutes maybe, max,” Bush said. “And that’s really a problem when it’s in your garage or in your home, when there’s so many flammable things around that. (It) presents a problem for a 4-minute response time, 5-minute response time. That fire is going to have a head start on us before we get there.”
He offers sage words of advice that if the battery is hissing, gassing, or bulging, unplug it and get away.
Also, as one fire department official found out, it's also deleterious to have your Labrador tinker with your phone charger.
NEW: Dog starts a house fire in Tulsa, Oklahoma after chewing through a portable lithium-ion battery.
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) August 6, 2024
The Tulsa Fire Department released the following video to warn people about the "dangers of lithium-ion batteries."
Two dogs and a cat were filmed hanging out before one… pic.twitter.com/skTb8YEzJ6
...The Tulsa Fire Department released the following video to warn people about the "dangers of lithium-ion batteries."
Two dogs and a cat were filmed hanging out before one of the dogs started the fire with the battery pack.
The animals were filmed in the living room on an indoor monitoring camera, observing the fire before it got out of hand.
"Lithium-ion batteries are known for storing a significant amount of energy in a compact space," the fire department said.
"However, when this energy is released uncontrollably, it can generate heat, produce flammable and toxic gases, and even lead to explosions."
The pets were able to escape the home through a dog door.
I made every last cat and the Scotty watch this video three times.
(Although with cats, you never know if they're taking notes on what to do as opposed to what not.)
Even with what aids are available to fire departments at the moment, there is still considerable danger, as this recent test of an EV fire blanket proves. Out of nowhere, there is a violent explosion that blows seven of the firefighters surrounding the vehicle off their feet.
The gases that EVs emit when they catch fire get trapped under the blanket and are explosive in themselves.
DANGER DANGER DANGER
...The test, observed by EV FireSafe Director Emma Sutcliffe (a member of the NFPA technical panel) and Head of Technical Dan Fish, demonstrates the real danger of trapping flammable gases beneath a fire blanket during a lithium-ion battery thermal runaway event. While some companies market EV fire blankets as “quick and easy” fire control tools, this test proves that they can instead create explosive conditions if used by untrained or unqualified personnel.
So one step forward, half step back?
With no clear way to fight these fires and so much going wrong if the battery, large or small, takes off, someone somewhere has to find a way to fight these fires.
