Fire

Fire

Approach and extinguish a fire using proper vehicle fire fighting practices as recommended by NFPA, IFSTA, or the National Fire Academy (USA).

- Extinguishing agent:
Water has been proven to be a suitable extinguishing agent.

- Initial fire attack:
Perform a fast, aggressive fire attack. Divert the runoff from entering watershed areas. Attack teams may not be able to identify an Altima Hybrid until the fire has been knocked down and overhaul operations have commenced.

- Fire in a high voltage battery:
Should a fire occur in the Ni-MH high voltage battery, attack crews should utilize a water stream or fog pattern to extinguish any fire within the trunk EXCEPT for the high voltage battery.






When allowed to burn themselves out, the Altima Hybrid Ni-MH battery modules burn rapidly and can quickly be reduced to ashes except for the metal.

Offensive fire attack:
Flooding the Altima Hybrid high voltage battery is not recommended due to the battery case design and location preventing the responder from properly, and safely, applying water through the available vent openings. Therefore, it is recommended that the incident commander allow the Altima Hybrid high voltage battery to burn itself out. Normally, flooding a Ni-MH high voltage battery with copious amounts of water at a safe distance will effectively control the high voltage battery fire by cooling the adjacent Ni-MH battery modules to a point below their ignition temperature. The remaining modules on fire, if not extinguished by the water, will burn themselves out.

Defensive fire attack:
If the decision has been made to fight the fire using a defensive attack, the fire attack crew should pull back a safe distance and allow the Ni-MH battery modules to burn themselves out. During this defensive operation, fire crews may utilize a water stream or fog pattern to protect exposures or to control the path of smoke.