University of Extrication: Electric Vehicle Extrication—Badging & Batteries

Topic: Electric vehicle (EV) identification and rescue/extrication challenges Objective: Revise EV extrication protocols to address EV challenges Task: The rescue team shall revise its scene size-up procedure to include information from sources other than vehicle badging and shall have extrication procedures planned when a floorpan-mounted high-voltage battery is presentWhat are referred to as electrified passenger vehicles, such as various hybrids (HEVs) and electric vehicles (EVs), are emerging as a unique challenge to responders at crash or fire scenes. Responders have encountered hybrid vehicles at incidents since early 2000 and have dealt with a multitude of HEV crash, extrication and, even, fire suppression scenes seemingly without major problems. Hybrids do pose some special challenges, but EVs require another level of size-up precision that involves model identification and…

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