(PatrioticPost.com)- A federal traffic safety agency reported that instances of electric vehicles (EVs) catching fire after being soaked in seawater are not unheard of.
Jimmy Patronis, the chief financial officer of the Florida Department of Financial Services, received a letter from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) confirming that his experience with a reignition in North Collier was not an isolated incident. “We are tracking Florida EV fires through news reports, fire department social media sites, and other sources,” the NHTSA wrote.
In his letter to the traffic safety organization, Patronis recounted an event in North Collier, Florida, when an EV started and continued again after Hurricane Ian.
“An EV repeatedly ignited and continually reignited while fireteams drenched the vehicle with tens of thousands of gallons of water,” he said. He joined North Collier Fire Rescue to examine response actions linked to Hurricane Ian. “The fire department told me the car re-lit when it was placed into the tow truck.”
He said that we could be dealing with a ticking time bomb, which worries him greatly.
After a storm hit Newark, New Jersey, in October 2012, the NHTSA said it saw its first EV fires there.
The lithium-ion battery, which starts the fires, might malfunction “many weeks” or immediately after the car has been soaked in seawater.
Associated parties were also warned by the road safety organization to abide by interim advice from 2014 and avoid “storing a seriously damaged car with a lithium-ion battery within a building or 50 feet of any structure, vehicle, or combustibles.”
On October 6, Patronis warned about the rise in corroded electric car batteries after Hurricane Ian.
There are several disabled EVs from Ian. Fires start when such batteries degrade. Our firemen have never previously confronted a situation like that, Patronis added. “At least on a scale like this.”
Along with the tweet, Patronis provided a video of North Collier Fire Rescue (NCFR) personnel working to remove the smoke from an EV in the middle of a busy street.
Firefighters had previously sprayed the car with 1,500 gallons of water, but a lady could be heard complaining that the smoke was still there. She said that it proves how deadly these fires are, adding that firemen will now keep “drowning” the car in water until it cools down.
Another individual can be heard in the video predicting that the truck would continue to spew smoke “for days.”
