Fw: GEM Fire Burns House of Celebrity

[Dave Goldstein <goldie.ev1@juno.com>]

  More negative fire publicity on EVs . . .
Sensationalist New York Post calls GEM 
a "Hell Car" . . .

  Obviously, there are many potential
causes for an EV-related fire, including:

 * a weak, overloaded, or shorted extension
   cord, 

 * defective outlet (I have seen standard wall 
   outlets overheat and melt without tripping 
   a breaker),

 * loose or shorted battery connectors, 

 * hydrogen gas buildup in an enclosed garage 
   (ignited by a spark or the flame from a gas hot 
   water heater) 

   Based upon a quick reading of this article, 
(". . . sending flames through her air conditioning 
system,") I would suspect the latter possibility,
assuming that the Furnace/Air Conditioning 
system was located in the garage, as is typical
in many Florida and California homes.

  With small EVs like GEMs now being sold in
West Coast COSTCOs without benefit of service
contracts or direct customer support, it should 
be evident that more can and should be done to 
address *safety issues.*   

  It should also be evident that many fire depart-
ments are still woefully misinformed or poorly 
trained to handle or investigate these issues. 
(Note this unfortunate statement related by a fire 
official: "Electric cars and golf carts are always 
overloading their chargers and burning up, but 
no one knows about it.") 

  I believe there is a need for a safety-related
forum on this topic.  Some years ago, there
was a joint DOE-EVAA effort to develop a
safety training series on EVs for fire depart-
ments and emergency medical technicians, 
and a similar and possibly related effort was 
initiated by the California State Fire Marshall.  
All of these efforts are now outdated, IMO. 

   Having been involved previously in the DOE
efforts, I am putting out some feelers on this 
subject, with the hope that we can get together 
and discuss it in a public forum -- perhaps ETIC 
in Florida in mid-December?

  For more information on ETIC, please see:

            www.eticonference.com 

   Regards,

   Dave Goldstein
   President, EVA/DC and
   Program Development Associates
   Gaithersburg, MD
  

--------- Forwarded message ----------
From: josh <joshl@myrealbox.com>
To: ev@listproc.sjsu.edu
Date: Tue, 30 Jul 2002 08:23:23 -0700
Subject: GEM Fire Burns House of Celebrity

http://www.pagesix.com/pagesix/pagesix.htm

>Firefighters who rushed to the scene told Webb that 
>good intentions often turn lovely homes into blazing death zones. 
>"They said they see this kind of thing with electric cars all the time,"

>she says. "Electric cars and golf carts are always overloading 
>their chargers and burning up, but no one knows about it." 


>From Today's NY Post:

HELL-CAR BURNS 
MODEL'S HOME 
 
By RICHARD JOHNSON with Paula Froelich and Chris Wilson 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------


 Veronica Webb 
- Photo by: 
Dave Allocca/DMI  

VERONICA Webb's eco-friendly electric car turned into a fire-spewing 
death machine the other night, burning down her Key West house and 
killing her beloved dog, Hercules.
 
Despite her long devotion to various green causes, the six-month pregnant
supermodel says she's through with electric cars after her Chrysler Gem
overloaded while charging late last Monday night, sending flames through 
her air conditioning system and consuming everything in its wake. 

"We got the car because it was supposed to be great for the environment,
but no
one ever warns you how dangerous they are," Webb tells PAGE SIX's Ian
Spiegelman. 

Firefighters who rushed to the scene told Webb that good intentions often
turn
lovely homes into blazing death zones. "They said they see this kind of
thing
with electric cars all the time," she says. "Electric cars and golf carts
are
always overloading their chargers and burning up, but no one knows about
it." 

Among the hidden dangers, Webb says, were four hidden high-powered
batteries.
"There are four extra batteries that aren't shown in the [owner's manual]
diagram. They need to be serviced but you can't service them if you don't
even
know that they're there." 

Luckily, Webb was in New York shopping for baby furniture when the blaze
erupted, but her new husband, Wall Streeter turned amateur archaeologist
George
Robb, was asleep in bed. He barely escaped with his life. "By the time
the fire
department showed up, they didn't even go inside to look for survivors
because
they assumed that anyone left inside was long dead. They said George got
out
with 30 seconds to spare." 

Her devoted long-haired dachshund, 8-year-old Hercules, was not so lucky.
"At
first George called me saying Hercules had gotten out and was okay. Then
he
started saying he was cold. He wasn't breathing. He couldn't survive in
that
smoke." 

Hercules, who had a cameo role in Ben Stiller's "Zoolander," might have
survived
if Webb's Gem had been the only electronic device that malfunctioned that
night.
"Our $4,000 fire alarm system never went off," she says. "All of us
blindly
trust our fire detectors, and I would hate to see this happen to anyone
else." 

Webb says that after her insurance company contacted Chrysler, the
automaker set
up several appointments to inspect the wreckage, but never showed up and
never
called to reschedule. A Chrysler spokesman did not return our calls.