Looked like a really nice house.
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Posted on 10/14/2022 2:50:17 PM PDT by Jacquerie
After surviving Hurricane Ian, some homes in Florida are facing a new danger: electric vehicles catching fire due to their batteries being corroded by the floods.
State Rep. Bob Rommel and state Fire Marshal Jim Patronis have been particularly vocal about the threat of EV fires in the aftermath of the hurricane.
“Electric vehicles are catching on fire due to electrical system failure caused by saltwater storm surge from Hurricane Ian, catching homes on fire, endangering first responders and FL families. I’m calling on EV companies to partner with us to find solutions. We must take action,” Patronis tweeted.
In a video Patronis shared along with those comments, firefighters can be seen fighting a Tesla fire. A woman is heard saying that the firefighters had already dumped 1,500 gallons of water on the car, but the fire just kept burning.
Last week, Patronis wrote a letter to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to ask for more information about the risks to EVs from saltwater damage.
“On October 6th, I joined North Collier Fire Rescue to assess response activities related to Hurricane Ian and saw with my own eyes an EV continuously ignite, and continually reignite, as fireteams doused the vehicle with tens-of-thousands of gallons of water,” Patronis wrote.
“Subsequently, I was informed by the fire department that the vehicle, once again reignited when it was loaded onto the tow truck. Based on my conversations with area firefighters, this is not an isolated incident. As you can appreciate, I am very concerned that we may have a ticking time bomb on our hands.”
(Excerpt) Read more at westernjournal.com ...
Thanks.
5.56mm
I’ve posted on the fire dangers of certain battery types in the past and I always get a bunch of blowback that gas cars can catch fire too. But I think the risk factors are different. Your cell phone is pretty safe because it is small. If there were lots of battery cells on top of one another, as they must be in a car battery then the risks multiply. One cell starts to overheat and the cells next to it overheat as well. As they heat each other you end up with a cascade effect. The phone can probably detect this but the overall charge on the car battery may be low, so the charger won’t know the battery has a problem and will keep charging. (This is probably not true for all types of car battery packs as some likely have sensors, but the risk is still not zero.) Then there’s getting water in the battery pack which will likely short one or more cells causing a cascade. Then there’s condensation because air gets in as the batteries are likely vented. There are probably more fires in, say, Florida than in super dry places.
I’m astonished that insurance companies aren’t cancelling policies like they have been doing for solar cells on rooftops. Probably a lot of them are on board the global climate change train but if they start to take a lot of losses, they will get off the train and then people will start losing their insurance or car fires destroying houses will be a special clause limiting claims. Once that happens people will be disincentivized to buy battery cars.
Also, I’d like to know how many people have only electric cars as their only transportation. The number one factor for people dumping their electric car was they only had the one car. The second factor was a long daily commute. If people only have the electric car as their second car, then it’s just a very expensive social statement.
<>I’m astonished that insurance companies aren’t cancelling policies like they have been doing for solar cells on rooftops. Probably a lot of them are on board the global climate change train but if they start to take a lot of losses, they will get off the train and then people will start losing their insurance or car fires destroying houses will be a special clause limiting claims. Once that happens people will be disincentivized to buy battery cars.<>
I hope you are correct, but I doubt it. Too many in the Deep State and industry are making too much EV related money to turn off the spigot.
The media is not going to report on it. Unlike what they did for the Pinto shortly after I bought one.
I read your book.
EVs are the pitbull of cars.
““Electric vehicles are catching on fire due to electrical system failure caused by saltwater storm surge from Hurricane Ian...”
Do any states still use salt on the roads in winter? What’s that going to do to things?
It’s a really big problem except for only one thing, and that is that there is only a single instance of an electric vehicle burning after the hurricane. One example repeated dozens of times. Anecdotally it means that it is coincidental with the hurricane.
Your source?
Oh wait. They should be parked outside just in case they catch fire.
Decisions. Decisions.
Bump
That's not the point, you can set diamonds on fire. The point is whether the fires are the result of owner/operator mistreatment or mismangement, or whether they're a byproduct of the manufacturer's ineptitude and/or malfeasance.
Dinosaur-powered vehicles rarely if ever catch fire unless they're under or improperlI always get a bunch of blowback that gas cars can catch fire tooy-maintained or have received major damage in an accident. And they NEVER catch fire (on their own) when their electrical system is de-energized.
BEVs in general and Teslas in particular cannot make either of those claims. Many of them appear to catch fire for no other reason than they're that day's lottery winner. Don't forget that in 2019 Tesla rolled out a software update that reduced the charge rate and capacity
I would avoid buying any used vehicles from Florida for the next few years...
>>Petronis is FL CFO and State FIRE Marshal.<<
Petronis is also the brand name of an electric heater.
Sometimes, you can’t escape a fate. ;)
"...I always get a bunch of blowback that gas cars can catch fire too...."
That's not the point, you can set diamonds on fire. The point is whether the fires are the result of owner/operator mistreatment or mismangement, or whether they're a byproduct of the manufacturer's ineptitude and/or malfeasance.
Dinosaur-powered vehicles rarely if ever catch fire unless they're under or improperly-maintained or have received substantial damage in an accident. And they NEVER catch fire (on their own) when their electrical system is de-energized.
BEVs in general and Teslas in particular cannot make either of those claims. Many of them appear to catch fire for no other reason than they're that day's lottery winner.
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“Then there’s getting water in the battery pack which will likely short one or more cells causing a cascade. Then there’s condensation because air gets in as the batteries are likely vented. There are probably more fires in, say, Florida than in super dry places.”
I’m wondering what is going to happen in a few years when there are enough EV’s on the road in winter months to see how the salt treated highways are going to treat our favorite energy boondoggle.
I’m not offering them a ride.
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