All posts tagged: firefighting

Lithium-ion battery fires are surging. Firefighting tech is struggling to keep up

Lithium-ion battery fires are surging. Firefighting tech is struggling to keep up

Published by skeptic

From electric vehicles and e-bikes to grid-scale energy storage systems, lithium-ion batteries are becoming central to modern life. But as governments and industries accelerate the shift toward electrification, fire services and safety regulators are confronting a growing problem: lithium-ion battery fires are increasing in frequency, are notoriously difficult to extinguish and are exposing the limitations of existing firefighting technologies. In cities including London, New York City, and Seoul, officials have reported rising numbers of fires linked to lithium-ion batteries, particularly from e-bikes and electric scooters. Large-scale battery storage fires have also triggered evacuations and environmental concerns in several countries over the past decade, raising questions about whether safety infrastructure is keeping pace with the rapid adoption of battery-powered technologies. Unlike conventional fires, lithium-ion battery fires can burn at extremely high temperatures, reignite hours after appearing extinguished and release toxic gases during combustion. Firefighters often require vast quantities of water to cool battery cells and stop thermal runaway, the chain reaction that occurs when overheating spreads from one cell to another. At the same time, growing …

Autonomous firefighting robot can drive straight into a 1,000 degree blaze

Autonomous firefighting robot can drive straight into a 1,000 degree blaze

Published by Jenni Sidey

Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. Firefighters in South Korea will soon start deploying alongside a massive, six-wheeled, self-cooling autonomous robot that could help keep them safe. Hyundai recently revealed the new, driverless ground drone, built atop a chassis initially intended for military use and looking like something out of a sci-fi film. The robot has a massive hose—in place of a munitions cannon—that can both douse fires and illuminate dark areas to help in search and rescue situations. It also has thermal imaging sensors that can see through thick smoke. Hyundai says the goal is to send the bright, red behemoth into dangerous areas ahead of firefighters to start tackling blazes and map out safe escape routes. “By tackling dangerous situations in place of people, the robot ultimately protects the lives and safety of firefighters and citizens,” Hyundai notes in a press release.  A Safer Way Home: Every one of us must return home safely | HMG’s Unmanned Firefighting Robot Firefighting is a crucial …

Maybe robots SHOULD steal some jobs: firefighting ‘bot saves lives

Maybe robots SHOULD steal some jobs: firefighting ‘bot saves lives

Published by skeptic

Hyundai announced the unimaginatively named Unmanned Firefighting Robot last week – but this life-saving robot isn’t just a futuristic concept. The first operational unit was donated and deployed at the National Fire Agency, where it hopes to prove that there are some jobs robots should take from humans. Hyundai believes its Unmanned Firefighting Robot can save human lives by being preemptively deployed to active fires and other high-risk scenes that are especially dangerous to humans due to risks of collapse, explosion, high temperatures, toxic gas, or dense, acrid smoke. The robot’s on-board AI works with remote operators to identify and assesses the scene upon its arrival, approach the fire’s source, and work to directly extinguish the blaze. By tackling dangerous situations in place of people, Hyundai’s robotic firefighter ultimately saves more lives by going into hotter, more dangerous fires sooner, and helps more first responders find their way home. To that end, Hyundai has baked a number of advanced technologies into its new robot that cover the full range of automotive ADAS we’re familiar with, but …

This founder cracked firefighting — now he’s creating an AI gold mine

This founder cracked firefighting — now he’s creating an AI gold mine

Published by skeptic

Sunny Sethi, founder of HEN Technologies, doesn’t sound like someone who’s disrupted an industry that has remained largely unchanged since the 1960s. His company builds fire nozzles – specifically, nozzles that it says increase suppression rates by up to 300% while conserving 67% of water. But Sethi is matter-of-fact about this achievement, more focused on what’s next than what’s already been done. And what’s next sounds a lot bigger than fire nozzles. His path to firefighting doesn’t follow a tidy narrative. After nabbing his PhD at the University of Akron, researching surfaces and adhesion, he founded ADAP Nanotech, an outfit that developed a carbon nanotube-based portfolio and won Air Force Research Lab grants. Next, at SunPower, he developed new materials and processes for shingled photovoltaic modules. When he landed next at a company called TE Connectivity, he worked on devices with new adhesive formulations to enable faster manufacturing in the automotive industry. Then came a challenge from his wife. The two had moved from Ohio to the East Bay outside San Francisco in 2013. A …

Making the transition to PFAS-free firefighting foam

Making the transition to PFAS-free firefighting foam

Published by skeptic

Jerry Back, Senior Fire Protection Engineer at Jensen Hughes, offers guidance on how the fire safety industry can support the phase out of PFAS in firefighting foam. Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are valued for their exceptional fire-suppressing properties, yet they present significant environmental and health hazards. Historically, one of the most popular firefighting foams was aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF), which is used to suppress flammable liquid fires. However, the same properties that make PFAS useful in firefighting also make them exceptionally persistent in the environment. Once released, PFAS can accumulate in soil, groundwater, wildlife, and the human body, remaining for years or even decades. Growing scientific evidence has linked PFAS exposure to a range of environmental and public health concerns, prompting increased scrutiny of AFFF use. Firefighters, military personnel, and communities near training sites and airports have been identified as particularly vulnerable to contamination. As awareness has grown, so too have regulatory actions, lawsuits, and efforts to transition toward safer alternatives. Today, AFFF sits at the centre of a global reassessment of how we …

A next-generation fluorine-free firefighting solution

A next-generation fluorine-free firefighting solution

Published by skeptic

FIREBULL® AB is a PFAS-free firefighting solution designed to outperform traditional foams while ensuring environmental safety and compliance with emerging regulations. For decades, aqueous film-forming foams (AFFF) were considered the gold standard for suppressing flammable liquid fires. Their ability to rapidly create a vapour-suppressing film made them synonymous with reliable Class B protection. However, the fluorinated surfactants within AFFF –specifically PFAS compounds – have created an environmental and regulatory crisis. Around the world, fire departments, industrial facilities, airports, and military organisations are searching for high-performance, fluorine-free alternatives that not only match the operational capabilities of legacy foams but exceed them. One of the most advanced and validated solutions emerging in this transition is FIREBULL® AB, a fluorine-free, PFAS-free firefighting concentrate engineered to outperform traditional foams while eliminating environmental toxicity. Backed by third-party certifications, global test standards, and field-proven performance, FIREBULL AB is rapidly becoming a preferred replacement for AFFF across public and private sectors. A new standard of environmental safety: Fluorine-free and PFAS-free The global move away from PFAS-containing firefighting foams has intensified with new …