Posted on 10/06/2023 6:32:10 AM PDT by Red Badger
Fire officials in Florida have issued a warning to the public after recent storms have highlighted major safety issues with electric vehicles.
A local fire and rescue department started raising the alarm in the wake of Hurricane Idalia’s landfall in Florida’s Big Bend near Keaton Beach in late August.
The department has warned owners of electric-powered cars, trucks, scooters, and golf carts that exposure to salt water can cause the vehicles’ batteries to catch fire.
Palm Harbor Fire Rescue on Florida’s Gulf Coast issued the warning in a post on Facebook.
The post urges owners to move their battery-powered vehicles out of their garages if they come in contact with salt water, to prevent the fire from spreading to the structure.
The warning was apparently triggered by a fire in a Tesla in nearby Dunedin, a city just south of the unincorporated area of Palm Harbor.
“If you own a hybrid or electric vehicle that has come into contact with saltwater due to recent flooding within the last 24 hours, it is crucial to relocate the vehicle from your garage without delay,” the post warns.
“Saltwater exposure can trigger combustion in lithium-ion batteries.
“If possible, transfer your vehicle to higher ground.”
“This includes golf carts and electric scooters,” the post added.
“Don’t drive these through water.
“PHFR crews have seen numerous residents out in golf carts and children on scooters riding through water.”
The state fire marshal warned last year in the wake of Hurricane Ian’s devastation of the threat the electric vehicle batteries posed to those living in coastal areas subject to storm surges.
Florida Fire Marshal Jimmy Patronis had previously gone public with his worries before sending a letter last October seeking answers from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration about what the Sunshine State could be facing in the future.
In a letter sent Oct. 7, 2022, to NHTSA Executive Director Jack Danielson, Patronis set a deadline of Oct. 14 for the national agency to answer questions regarding the threat to Florida firefighters from electric vehicles in the hurricane zone with lithium batteries that have been damaged by exposure to saltwater and eventually ignited because of it.
In the letter, Patronis summarized his own experiences last week when he witnessed first-hand the difficulty firefighters experience extinguishing a fire in an electric vehicle.
He wrote:
“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.
“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.”
Patronis asked five questions, paraphrased below:
* Has the NHTSA instructed manufacturers of electric vehicles to inform customers about the particular dangers flooding pose to lithium batteries?
* Does standard firefighter gear protect against gases from EV fires?
* Should removing EVs from a hurricane zone be a designated duty in storm cleanup efforts?
* Does the NHTSA have information about specific timelines for the danger from post-flooding fires in EVs?
* Does the NHTSA have any guidance on locations where compromised electric vehicles can be taken where they can burn out safely?
The NHTSA said in a statement that it had been studying the impact of saltwater corrosion on electric vehicles for a decade, since Superstorm Sandy in October 2012.
“Fires in electric vehicles can pose unique challenges for firefighters and other first responders,” the statement reads.
“Since similar issues emerged with EVs after Superstorm Sandy, NHTSA has been researching the effect of saltwater immersion on batteries, and working with stakeholders to equip first responders with best practices on fighting battery fires.”
In 2021, the NHTSA launched a Battery Safety Initiative.
According to the website CNET, the goal is to “research areas such as battery diagnostics, management systems, and even cybersecurity to ensure future cars with batteries onboard to power the entire vehicle are as safe as can be.”
Considering that electric vehicles in large numbers are a fairly new development, it’s likely that the country even a year later just doesn’t have enough experience yet to fully know some of those answers to all of Patronis’ questions.
Until those answers are made clear, however, it’s best simply to understand the dangers and do what we can to mitigate them.
Obviously, keeping EVs away from salt water.
That’ll buff out! LOL!
biden and his fascists will ignore that warning and punish you big time for having a gas-powered car.
So EVs are a double-win for the eco nazis - destroy the US economy AND have more of them light up in a red state.
This EV lunacy will only stop when insurance companies either refuse to insure outright or set premiums so high that EV ownership is prohibitive. When you talk about water being the catalyst, there is practically and cost-effectively no way to prevent it from reaching a battery in a vehicle that in roadway winter salt, rain, and flood conditions.
Is it ironic that Ron DeSantis is from Dunedin, Florida?
Well, he is doing a great job as Governor. Well when he is not campaigning, I mean.
The danger is also in any area that uses salt to melt ice on the road. Salt and slushy, melting ice could be a lethal combination.
How long until Insurance companies just refuse to cover any fire related damage from an EV??
Got an EV, sorry You can’t get Fire Insurance on your home...
I was just going to ask, do you think some mechanic could repair that car? 😁😂😂😄
Hurricanes not just grid system killers also EV hunters.
Cue Jaws theme
Salt water can cause EV’s to catch on fire? Who knew? Another serious problem with them.
Over priced fighter jets and over priced cars that can only operate in pristine weather, yeah that’s the ticket!
free firesuit with every purchase
There are some things people just don’t get about EVs and batteries. I do because have an engineering/physics background as do many of my closest friends — although this is really basic stuff.
A full tank of gasoline for an internal combustion vehicle and a fully charge battery pack for an EV have about the same energy content (to be fair a full tank of gas has more). There are several big differences related to safety and the environment though:
(1) Gasoline tends to burn when on fire, not explode. It is actually tough to get gasoline to explode, hence all the compression and such in internal combustion engines. Batteries on the other hand tend to explode when on fite.
(2) Gasoline fires are nasty but not that hard to put out. Battery fires are VERY hard to put out being a combination of chemical and electrical fires.
(3) Gasoline fires do put off some fumes, but nothing as nasty as what comes off burning batteries. That stuff is toxic. Will literally melt the flesh off your bones. I know firefighters who have been ordered not to get near a burning EV without full hazmat suits. Also, anyone caught in a burning EV is almost certainly dead in short order. No point in rushing to put out the fire. Not the same with many gasoline fires — people can be saved for a longer period of time.
(4) Used empty gas tanks are mostly just metal. Not a huge threat to the environment when discarded for example in a dump or landfill. Worn out batteries from an EV are toxic environmental Hell.
Not going to get too far into the weeds about the energy balance stuff. Summary: between production of batteries and the fact the power has to come from somewhere to charge them, EVs are actually less energy efficient — by a lot — so even if someone is stupid and/or ignorant enough to believe in man-made global climate change, EVs aren’t helping their misguided “cause.”
And oh yeah, as discussed, saltwater can cause EVs to go up in flames. Not so much with gasoline powered vehicles.
eyeamok shoots and SCORES!
Ooops, I meant “There are some things many people don’t get...” Obviously Freepers get some if not all of what I posted.
“”or set premiums so high that EV ownership is prohibitive””
If the price of the EV doesn’t stop them, a very high insurance premium isn’t likely to be a consideration.
And yet they’re pushing electric ships to sail the ocean.
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