Florida officials said firefighters working in Hurricane Ian damage zones are encountering a new problem that is proving challenging - electric vehicle fires from corroded batteries.
Florida’s Chief Financial Officer & State Fire Marshal Jimmy Patronis took to social media Thursday to show the response by North Collier Fire Rescue to an EV that caught fire in the middle of a busy roadway.
"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. At least on this kind of scale," Patronis said.
First responders did not report any injuries associated with the incident but said these fires can be difficult to extinguish. An official on scene can be heard saying in a video, "So, we’ve already put on 1,500 gallons of water on this, and it is still going. This shows how dangerous these fires are."