In a stunning glitch, no less than 9 electrical automobiles “stuck hearth with out caution” within the aftermath of Storm Ian, officers have reported.
It’s unknown what number of automobiles in overall could have been impacted all through the Ian-affected spaces within the state.
The fires had been it seems that sparked as conductive saltwater poured over flooded automobiles and their charged lithium-ion batteries. Saltwater can create a deadly “salt bridge” between the sure and damaging issues of the battery, which is able to spark short-circuits and fires.
The Nationwide Freeway Site visitors Protection Management (NHTSA) has warned that EVs can ignite weeks after touch with saltwater. Some tow truck corporations have refused to pick out up water-damaged EVs, ABC Information reported.
Fires in electric automobiles run extraordinarily sizzling and are difficult to extinguish.
Six automobiles in Naples burned for “hours and hours” and required “hundreds upon hundreds” of gallons of water to extinguish — a much more extensive combat than one posed via a gas-powered automotive, hearth division spokesperson Heather Mazurkiewicz advised E&E Information.
A minimum of one electrical car reignited after flames had been extinguished, destroying two properties that had survived the hurricane, in keeping with officers.
Florida Leader Monetary Officer and State Fireplace Marshal Jimmy Patronis warned early this month about the issue in a tweet. He shared a video of firefighters in Naples extinguishing a car hearth.
Patronis stated “a ton” of EVs wre disabled via the hurricane that hit two weeks in the past. The fires are a “new problem that our firefighters haven’t confronted ahead of,” he famous.
Patronis despatched letters to the NHTSA and EV producers with pointed questions concerning the fires. In a letter to Tesla CEO Elon Musk, he complained about the potential for EVs to “spontaneously combust,” and described the hot fires as “surreal, and admittedly, frightening.”
Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), a member of the Trade, Science and Transportation Committee, additionally despatched letters to EV producers and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg that accused automakers of giving shoppers the “probably life-threatening misimpression” that EVs paintings after saltwater submersion.
“This rising risk has pressured native hearth departments to divert assets clear of typhoon restoration to regulate and comprise those unhealthy fires,” Scott wrote to Buttigieg. “As expanding numbers of EVs come to marketplace national, this risk calls for motion via the U.S. Division of Transportation to increase steerage to correctly warning shoppers about this possibility posed via EVs submerged in saltwater.”
Florida is 2d within the country — at the back of California — within the selection of EVs at the highway. As of August, there have been greater than 95,000 registered EVs within the state, up from 58,000 in 2021.