Photo courtesy of Jennifer Andre
Homewood Fire Department Battalion Chief Matt Hall, Deputy Chief Brandon Broadhead and Mayor Patrick McClusky show off two fire blankets that the Fire Department can use to extinguish electric vehicle fires during a Homewood City Council meeting on Monday, March 11, 2024.
The Homewood Fire Department soon will be getting a better tool to put our fires on electric vehicles, Deputy Chief Brandon Broadhead said.
State Rep. David Faulkner, R-Mountain Brook, secured for Homewood a $2,500 grant from the Jefferson County Community Service Fund of the Jefferson County legislative delegation, Broadhead said. The money will be used to buy fire blankets, which are needed to smother a blaze if an electric vehicle catches fire, he said.
The department already had two and is buying another Broadhead said. The grant means there will be a fire blanket for each of the city’s four fire engines.
“Electrical vehicles pose a pretty significant hazard to both fire departments and the structures they’re around,” Broadhead said. “They take a lot of water to put out, most of them about 16,000 gallons. We don’t carry that on a fire truck.”
