Florida, United States: Electric car owners have seen their rides catch fire after becoming waterlogged throughout Hurricane Ian. It takes a long time to put the conflagrations out, as per the warning shared by a top FloriSda official.
The chief financial officer of Florida and state marshal, Jimmy Patronis, shared the information on his official social media account and noted that first responders had faced further destruction from electric vehicles that were submerged in water from the extensive flooding as well as later caught fire.
He highlighted, “There is a ton of EVs disabled from Ian. As those batteries corrode, fires start. That is a new challenge that our firefighters haven’t faced before. At least on this kind of scale.”
Moreover, in his tweet, Patrinis shared a video of firefighters with the North Collier Fire Rescue District in Naples putting an electric vehicle fire out as a bystander is heard saying it is taken thousands of gallons of water to extinguish it.
Patronis shared the Tweet, “It takes special training as well as an understanding of EVs to ensure these fires are put out quickly and safely.”
In addition, the similar vehicle fire posted on Facebook by the North Collier Fire Rescue District shows firefighters dousing the car’s top as well as underbelly with water to eliminate any sparks.
Along with this, the rescue district asserted that the firefighters received the call while Patronis, as well as state Representative Bob Rommel, had a visit in that area. The two-state officials were brought to the incident, so they could see the difficulty of putting EV fires out, as well as mentioned it took firefighters hours to make sure the blaze was extinguished.
Furthermore, the district asserted on Facebook, and they stated, “This is an issue many fire departments across [southwest] Florida are experiencing right now. These vehicles have been submerged in salt water; they have extensive damage and can potentially be serious fire hazards.”
