https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/ar-AA1s1bLC
by Ashley Miznazi
As emergency crews respond in the aftermath of Hurricane Milton over the next few days, they’ll have to deal with a lot of dangers in the damage along the Gulf Coast — downed power lines, unstable ruins, leaking natural gas tanks and pipe lines, chemical spills and more.
There is one other growing concern that is unique to coastal areas in Florida and other hurricane zones — the spontaneous combustion of electrical vehicles flooded by the salty storm surge.
Not every EV flooded by storm surge goes up in flames but it’s become frequent enough that insurers, car makers, fire chiefs and politicians have all issued warnings to EV owners in advance of the expected devastation of Hurricane Milton. And it’s not just cars that are a concern.
Jimmy Patronis, Florida’s chief financial officer and state fire marshal, issued a statement on Monday detailing a string of fires in the wake of Hurricane Helene, which flooded much of the Gulf Coast just two week ago. The state found 50,000 EV and hybrid registrations in the path of Hurricane Milton’s storm surge and counted at least 64 lithium battery fires after Hurricane Helene. EVs accounted for 17 of those but the rest were devices like scooters, hoverboards and golf carts. One fire was even sparked by an electric wheelchair. ‘
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Geico, a major insurer of cars in Florida, sent an email on Wednesday citing Patronis’ statement to its policyholders warning them about the threat for EVs and suggesting looking for protected parking areas. Tesla also sent a push notification to cars warning owners to move to higher ground.
The threat of lithium battery fires, which are difficult to extinguish, could worsen damage to homes and buildings after floods, he said.
“The average citizen I guarantee you does not realize they have a liability in their house with the salt water flooding,” Patronis told the Miami Herald in an interview on Wednesday. He called flooded lithium-ion batteries “ticking time bombs” that could cause worse damage than the storms that damaged them.
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“Water and the ion batteries do not mix, and they literally explode,” she said.
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This is the basic problem: Saltwater conducts electricity so if it gets inside a sealed the lithium-ion batteries used in cars and many devices, it can a cause a short-circuit, which creates heat and potentially fire. The effect is akin to accidentally touching both terminals of a car battery with a wrench — sparks will fly.
Harder fires to put out
Lithium battery fires after salt water flooding are not a new worry. The first reported EV fires emerged as far back as Oct. 2012 after Hurricane Sandy. But as more and more drivers go electric, there have been more of them. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that during Hurricane Ian in 2022, between 3,000 to 5,000 electric vehicles were impacted by the storm, with 600 being a total loss and 36 catching on fire.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said battery fires can happen weeks after electric cars were submerged in salt water and the fire can take hours and anywhere from 3,000 to 8,000 gallons of water to put out.
