Originally Posted by horizon flyer
Do crews receive training on how to handle a burning lithium battery as the metal can be very reactive and placing it water may not be the best idea it shorts the battery. Also some metals can ripe the oxygen out of the water and keep burning. Just wonder if any research has been done on the best way to extinguish one.
I happen to have a friend who happens to have an advanced degree from a serious school, who happened to spend a substantial part of the last few years of his working career tormenting various sort of lithium batteries, often to the point of destruction, occasionally to the point of violent, catastrophic destruction. The did so in the employ of a major organization with the clearest possible reason to seek the correct answer.
I asked him this question just a few days ago, and he was utterly unambiguous. According to both direct experimental test and physical understanding the best way to handle a smoldering lithium ion battery gadget is submerge it in water. The basic mechanism is cooling. There is no lithium in metallic form present in the battery. People citing their high school chemistry to claim danger from the use of water for this purpose are dead wrong.
None of this was any surprise to me but apparently the word still has not spread to some of those spreading their wisdom here.
Of course, neither he nor I are pilots, so mere knowledge of the subject may not count here.