FORT MYERS, Fla. (WSVN) — Electrical vehicles are turning out to be a fire hazard in Southwest Florida, and officials said Hurricane Ian is to blame.
A Tesla caught fire in the aftermath of the storm. Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis on Thursday posted video of the blaze.
“They already put on 1500 gallons of water on this, and it’s still going,” a woman is heard saying in the video.
Smoke billowed from the car as crews worked to put out the flames, at one point cutting through the hood latch to douse the interior.
“They’re going to continue to do what they can to drown this vehicle and cool it off as best they can,” said the woman in the video.
Patronis said multiple electric vehicles have been disabled due to Ian.
Florida State Rep. Bob Rommel said the culprit is saltwater.
“If they get saltwater in them, they catch on fire. Very difficult to put out, extreme hazard,” he said. “If you have an EV, and it’s in your garage, get it out now if it had saltwater flooding.”
North Collier Assistant Fire Chief James Hammond said fires sparked by electric car batteries are hard to put out.
“They take a large amount of water to slow the runaway in the battery, and in some cases, we’ve been running the challenges with water supply, and sometimes we have to just isolate them and protect the area and let them burn,” he said.
Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue Battalion Chief Stephen Gollan agrees.
“It’s been my experience that it is a much hotter fire. There’s a lot more energy there,” he said.
The energy comes from the cars’ lithium-ion batteries. After the fires are extinguished, damaged batteries can reignite.
That’s what happened after a Tesla crashed in Fort Lauderdale in 2018, killing two high school seniors.
If someone is trapped inside an electric car, Gollan said, firefighters have to be careful where they cut into the vehicle. Parts may have electricity still flowing through them.
“It could seriously injure the firefighter, whoever was cutting the cables,” said Gollan.
The National Fire Protection Agency said if those batteries are damaged in any way, they can create a highly flammable gas.
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