Firefighters in Florida are dealing with a new challenge in the wake of Hurricane Ian—waterlogged electric vehicle (EV) batteries erupting in flames.
Florida’s chief financial officer and state fire marshal, Jimmy Patronis, took to Twitter on Oct. 6 to warn of the increased numbers of incidents in which electric vehicle batteries have corroded amid the storm, prompting fires to begin.
“There’s a ton of EVs disabled from Ian. As those batteries corrode, fires start. That’s a new challenge that our firefighters haven’t faced before,” Patronis said. “At least on this kind of scale.”
Patronis shared a video alongside the tweet showing firefighters from the North Collier Fire Rescue (NCFR) attempting to put out smoke stemming from an EV in the middle of a busy road….