GM to teach emergency workers how to handle incidents involving EVs

General Motors is expanding a training program for public safety, fire and emergency service providers in the U.S. and Canada on electric vehicle safety. 

The automaker, which plans to sell a line up of all EVs by 2035, had been piloting safety training events in southeast Michigan. GM said Thursday it will expand that training across Michigan and to Fort Worth, Texas, followed by metro New York City and Southern California later this summer.

First and second responders can go to gmEVFirstResponderTraining.com to learn more about it.

GM is offering first-responder training for electric vehicles. Here a first responder performs a GMC Hummer EV extraction.

“This training offers unique material and hands-on experiences that can help increase responders’ awareness of procedures to help maintain safety while interacting with EVs during the performance of their duties,” said Joe McLaine, GM global product safety and systems engineer, and leader of the training effort.

GM’s EV First Responder Training program will focus on fire fighters and provide instruction and best practices on how to handle emergency situations involving EVs. GM currently sells four EVs: The Chevrolet Bolt and Bolt EUV, GMC Hummer EV pickup and Cadillac Lyriq SUV.

GM said the program will also benefit EV drivers involved in accidents because every second matters so it is key for emergency personnel to know what to do.

GM foresees rising sales of EVs, which is why it’s expanding the training program. The automaker plans to build more than 1 million EVs by 2025 and it continues to increase investments in the infrastructure that will enable mass adoption.

The training gives key information about battery electric vehicle technology and will dispel misconceptions as well as teach the best way to handle electric and electrified (hybrid) vehicles in a variety of scenarios, said GM spokesman Stuart Fowle.

For example, many people believe water is dangerous around an EV battery. But a large volume of water is the recommended way to suppress a lithium-ion battery fire, Fowle said.

“We’re training responders on what to look for at a scene, including chemical smells, smoke, or using thermal imaging tools to look at battery temperatures, just as in the past they would smell gas, see leaking fuel, or observe a fire,” Fowle said in an email. 

GM is expanding its training of first responders on how to handle any incidents involving EVs. Here is shows how to "cut the loop."

If a fire is detected, the training educates responders on the differences between a gasoline fire, which combusts and burns quickly, compared to batteries, which do not combust, but the fire can take longer and require more water to extinguish, Fowle said.

“We’re also teaching best practices to get water to the heat source, such as putting a hose through a window and simply flooding the floor of the vehicle since it houses the battery,” Fowle said.