Apparently only 0.3% of cars in Florida are currently EV’s, which is lucky, because after the Hurricane Ian a few of them are catching fire. Imagine what happens when all the cars are EV’s and firefighters need to pour on 100,000 liters of water and stick around for hours to baby sit what’s left:
Electric vehicles catching fire in Florida after Hurricane Ian
David Propper, New York Post.
Jimmy Patronis, Florida’s chief financial officer and state fire marshal, said on Twitter.
“There’s a ton of EVs disabled from Ian,” he tweeted. “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.”
At least one other twitter account North Collier Fire Rescue reports that “I’m in Naples there have been multiple fires like this in areas impacted by Ian.”
In the twitter thread people warn that that they shouldn’t be using water to put out a lithium battery fire, but there is so little that anyone can do to stop these fires, that pouring hundreds of gallons of water a minute continuously is the official Tesla policy.
Allegedly the Tesla policy on car fires.
But boy is it a lot of water:
Up to 150 000 liters of water needed to put out a fire in an electric car
International Associat6ion of Fire and Rescue Services
A US fire service recently needed to use 24 000 gallons – almost 90 000 liters – of water to put out a battery fire in a Tesla in a parking lot car fire. Studies suggest even more water may be necessary to put out fires in EVs.
According to an article on TheHill.com on August 17, 2021 it is considered normal procedure that firefighters will need to use up to 40 times more water to put out a fire in an EV, compared to a standard gasoline car.
The article also claims authorities have said a Tesla Model X poses a serious threat of starting a fire for hours after a crash.
“Normally a car fire you can put out with 500 to 1,000 gallons of water,” Austin Fire Department Division Chief Thayer Smith said, according The Independent.
In the Netherlands the fire brigade just lifted a smoking hybrid car and dropped it into a container full of water. Apparently it slows the fire down and only takes 24 to 48 hours. When 100% of all cars are EV’s we see the Fire Department towing cranes and truck-sized-baths to manage them…
Of course, most EV car fires don’t give this much lead time.
As far as the all new Clean Green Civilization goes, we are building this plane as we fly it.
It doesn’t have to be that way.