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Hurricane Ian leads to warning over electric vehicles catching fire


With the death and destruction that came with Hurricane Ian last week also came a relatively new and potentially growing problem: electric vehicles (EVs) catching fire. Florida State Fire Marshal Jimmy Patronis highlighted the issue in a tweet thread Thursday.

“There’s a ton of EVs disabled from Ian. As those batteries corrode, fires start. That’s a new challenge that our firefighters haven’t faced before. At least on this kind of scale,” Patronis tweeted. “It takes special training and understanding of EVs to ensure these fires are put out quickly and safely.”

It also takes plenty of manpower and water power. Last April, a Tesla Model S crashed in a suburb of Houston and started on fire. Eight firefighters ultimately spent seven hours putting out the fire, using 28,000 gallons of water to get the job done.

As the popularity of electric vehicles grows, firefighters nationwide are realizing that they are not fully equipped to deal with them. So they have been banding together, largely informally, to share information and help each other out.

Electric cars rely on a bank of lithium-ion batteries, similar to batteries found in a cellphone or computer. But unlike a small phone battery, the large batteries found in the Tesla Model X, for instance, contain enough energy to power an average American home for more than two days. So when an electric vehicle catches on fire, damaged energy cells cause temperatures to rise out of control and the resulting blaze can require a significant amount of water to put out.

The fire problem could get even worse as natural disasters like Ian continue to worsen and electric vehicles continue to grow in popularity. Upon taking office, President Joe Biden set a goal of ensuring 50% of new cars being EVs by 2030. In addition, multiple states have moved to require all new cars and trucks sold in the state to be zero-emission by 2035.

NBC News and FOX Weather contributed to this report.

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FIRE OFFICIALS ARE COMPARING ELECTRIC CAR FIRES TO TRICK BIRTHDAY CANDLES.
SAYING ONCE YOU THINK YOU HAVE THE FIRE OUT, IT COMES BACK, AND IT COMES BACK AGAIN.
LITHIUM-ION BATTERIES ARE POWERFUL AND VOLATILE.
THEY BURN HOTTER, THEY BURN LONGER, THEY SPREAD FASTER…
ACCORDING TO FIRE OFFICIALS.
HURRICANE IAN IS PROVING THE PROBLEM TO BE TAXING.
FLORIDA’S STATE FIRE MARSHALL SAYING E-V’S ARE DISABLED FROM FLOODING.
AND CORRODED BATTERIES ARE IGNITING FLAMES.
FIRE DEPARTMENTS HAVE LONG SAID THEY ARE INADEQUATELY TRAINED FOR ELECTRIC VEHICLE FIRES.
A SAFETY HAZARD…AMID A NATIONAL PUSH TO GO ELECTRIC.
RIGHT NOW…LESS THAN ONE PERCENT OF CARS ON THE HIGHWAYS ARE E-V’S.
BUT WITH ALL MAJOR MANUFACTURERS GOING GREEN…
AND TAX BREAK INCENTIVES FOR AMERICANS TO BUY ELECTRIC…
THE TIME IS TICKING FOR FIREFIGHTERS TO ACCLIMATE.
BUT IT’S NO EASY TASK.
ACCORDING TO TESLA’S GUIDE ON WHAT TO DO IF A FIRE ERUPTS…
JUST USE A LOT OF WATER.
BUT A LOT OF WATER IS AN UNDERSTATEMENT FOR FIRE DEPARTMENTS.
IN SOME CASES USING UP TO 30 THOUSAND GALLONS OF WATER TO PUT THE FIRE OUT.
THAT’S MORE WATER THAN AN AVERAGE HOME USES IN TWO YEARS