battery caught fire

[IamIan]

I would suspect the either the rear vents... of the under side vent that the IMA system vents out to.

Not just warmth... but things like food... loose a french fry ? ... mice have a good sense of smell.

[E27006]

Just a word of warning,

When vehicles are burnt out like that, the byproducts can be HydroFluoric Acid compounds stuck to the debris. Hoses and Fluids are two of the sources

Any parts can be dangerous to handle. if you get the charred debris inside a cut of your skin it can lead to surgical intervention including amputation.

Hydrofluoric acid is so strong it will readily etch glass.

Be very careful when dealing with anything removed from the vehicle

[RobertSmalls]

Hopefully the car's been rained on since then, so it should be safe to cut the burnt part off at the A-pillars and dismantle the front end, eh?

[leonar40]

Dang man that totally sucks. I am really sorry for your loss! As a battery test engineer, this is very interesting to me. I would concur with others in this thread that it is very unlikely that this battery chemistry would catch fire. I have abusively tested this chemistry by overcharging, overdischarging, nail penetration, crushing, and overheating, and never had one catch fire in this manner. Usually NiMH either oozes the electrolyte out of the battery header, or has a relatively minor smoking, but no major fire. However, there are some fairly large currents running to and from the pack, so it is entirely possible that the circuit components could have overheated and caused a fire if some of the built-in safety circuitry failed. You have certainly opened up our eyes though!

As a side, I've always wanted to know what the frame of the seats looked like, so thanks for that.

Glad to hear that everyone made it out ok, and I hope that you have better luck with your next hybrid.

[Hybrid-Battery-Repair]

I'd really like to see a picture of the IPU area with the debris removed to see if the battery module was the source of the fire. Lots of people here are nervous about their batteries spontaneously combusting, and it would help to confirm it or confirm that it did not originate in the battery module itself.

[numbness4sound]

That is so freaky! Glad everyone is OK.

[bikeracer]

I'm sorry to post this, but I can't believe no one has remarked on the bumper sticker:

Car Go Boom.

"Question Internal Combustion"

That photo must be worth the price of a new car. Silver lining?

But glad everyone's ok.

[IamIan]

Originally Posted by bikeracer

I'm sorry to post this, but I can't believe no one has remarked on the bumper sticker:

Someone already did comment on the bumper sticker

yes it is rather ironic.

[Christopher John]

Did yoyu have the recall for the motor controler? Please leus know..Sure glad your cat was OK..oh you too...