they were dumping it on a semi not a car, it seems like fire dept just needs to get more efficient, hopefully they are not trying to fight these fires in the same traditional way
It's not about being more efficient - it's about kicking out one or more legs of the fire triangle, with water, that being heat and oxygen. The problem is that physics dictates that overcoming the BTUs being put out by a battery fire requires rather a lot of water.
Use of other liquids to absorb this heat is ... problematic. One, you have to transport it to the fire, and two, runoff. It's bad enough having structure fire water runoff going to the ground and water supply, let alone another (most likely noxious) chemical.
Though I guess normal car fires would have gasoline-tainted runoff anyway!
Australian here, but I can’t imagine there’s much difference on this issue.
The battery fire is self sustaining, so only way to stop it is large amounts of continuous cooling for a long time. That's what the water container is for.
At least that's the method used in the Netherlands. Which obviously isn't practical for a semi truck sized fire.
Edit: Here is a picture from a news article: https://i.regiogroei.cloud/4561b78f-d49a-3ecc-adb4-6f535f896...
A big battery "fire" is not really a fire, in the normal meaning of that word.
The job the FD faced might better be described as "supply continuous cooling, until the self-powered/no-oxygen-needed battery meltdown runs low on electrical energy". Though if the FD's training & equipment is for traditional fires - then they are stuck using a "pretend it's a fire, and call in 10 more tanker trucks" playbook.
How long will it take for that to happen in one of these semis? What if the fire needs to be extinguished before then because of risks it poses to surroundings?
You're pretty much SoL, because the "fire" is more like a pair of electrical cables that are shorting together.
With seriously specialized heavy equipment (and probably an expendable robot or few), you might tap into the semi's electrical system, to drain off some of the electrical energy to a giant resistor. Or chop the battery out of the possibly-mangled semi's structure, and haul it away in a "burning battery containment" truck.