Electric-vehicle fires have burned down homes after Hurricane Ian saltwater damage. Florida officials want answers

Electric cars that have been flooded can catch fire. In the aftermath of Hurricane Ian, that is a problem in Florida.

Florida officials want to know what happened. The Department of Transportation and electric-vehicle makers received a letter from Senator Rick Scott. Scott wrote a letter to Buttigieg.

In addition to the damage caused by the storm itself, the saltwater flooding in several coastal areas has caused the batteries in flooded electric vehicles to spontaneously combust and catch fire, which is a serious fire hazard. Local fire departments have been forced to divert resources away from Hurricane Recovery to control and contain dangerous fires. It can take up to six hours to burn out a car fire from an electric vehicle. Even though the car fires have been extinguished, they can reignite in a second. Some homes that survived Hurricane Ian have now been burned down.

Scott asked Buttigieg what guidance his department has given to consumers, as well as what protocols it has developed for the car industry.

Jimmy Patronis, Florida's chief financial officer and state fire marshal, weighed in on the issue.

Much of the guidance on submerged vehicles does not address specific risks associated with exposure to saltwater. He said that while he was with North Collier Fire Rescue, he saw an EV continuously ignite and reignite, as fireteams doused the vehicle with tens of thousands of gallons of water.

EVs may be a time bomb, according to him.

A video of firefighters trying to extinguish a burning car was shared on the social networking site. There is a lot of electric vehicles that are disabled from Ian. The batteries begin to fail. It is a new challenge that our firefighters have never faced before. It's on this scale.

Danielson replied to Patronis.

Salt bridges can form within the battery pack and provide a path for short circuit and self- heating. This can cause fire to start. The transition from self- heating to fire ignition can take a long time.

He said that.

It might be helpful for people who are not involved in immediate life-saving missions to identify flooded vehicles with batteries and move them at least 50 feet away from structures.

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