slf4life:
The pictures, the '...eliminates the potential for fire' captions are made for public consumption I assume. So I'll be generous and surmise they mean a CABIN fire
Actually, they really meant a fire inside the FIRE BOX.
What they are saying is that regardless of to what extent and how violently the battery melts down, and how volatile the liquid and vapor emitted may be, there will not be open flame inside the FIRE BOX. All sorts of exothermic chemical reactions, but not flame. Therefore no chance of fire. This statement was made in technical presentations, not just
PR words. You just have to be very careful how the terms are defined.
Earlier comments about how the chemicals in the battery generate their own oxygen and therefore no air was needed to have flame were somewhat misleading. The chemical reactions within the active material and electrodes do not require external oxygen as part of a battery thermal runaway, but they do not release free oxygen nor by themselves count as fire.