First Responders attend training for emergencies involving electric vehicles

SPRING HILL, Tenn. (WSMV) - This week a number of Middle Tennessee first responders headed to Spring Hill for training on emergency situations involving electric vehicles as they become more popular on the roads.

“Lately with the fuel prices we are seeing a huge uptick in them. So we wanted to get as much information as we can to deal with them. It is just a matter of time,” said Wayne Globerger, Putnam County Fire Assistance Chief.

First Responders from Putnam County, Brentwood, Columbia, and more came out to the General Motors Electric Vehicle First Responder Training program on Wednesday.

With hands-on instruction the training offered key information about battery electric vehicle technology and shared best practices for handling electric and electrified (hybrid) vehicles safely in multiple situations.

“The work that we do is to show them that they have all the right PPE to safely interact with these EV’s. We talked to them about how to fight these EV’s when they do catch on fire and how to suppress them.. How to deal with submerged vehicles like what we saw with hurricane Ian,” explained Ryan Hickey, Advanced Battery TRP Integration Engineer at GM.

Since every second matters during an emergency, the idea is to equip them with helpful knowledge and also raise awareness of how seriously the industry is taking this.

“We want them to realize that there are going to be more and more electrified vehicles and electrified products on the roads that they are going to have to come in contact with. We want them to be prepared for that eventuality and also feel confident that their training is going to serve them well,” stated Joe McLaine, GM Global Product Safety and Systems Engineer.

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