As Florida’s second in a series of back to back hurricanes was approaching, Hurricane Milton, the state’s fire marshal issued warnings regarding the risk that electric vehicles were posing. Specifically, Fire Marshal Jimmy Patronis referred to any product relying on lithium-ion batteries as “ticking time bombs” as they prepared for the streets to flood. Warnings were directly issued to residents and first responders regarding electric vehicles that rely on this battery type, as well as vehicles that utilize hybrid and fuel cell vehicles. Patronis described them as “an alarming fire hazard.”
When Hurricane Milton made landfall, it was registered as a dangerous Category 3 storm.
As the storm moved further inland, the ranking was lowered to a Category 1; however, the electric vehicle threat remained all the same. Because many parts of the state were still in a recovery mode in order to recover from Hurricane Helene, there was a lot of infrastructure down, allowing for heavy flooding to still happen easily. Helene did allow them to gain insight into the electric vehicle issue, as state officials learned lessons from the amount of incidents involving electric vehicles. Hurricane Helene brought about 48 fires caused by lithium-ion batteries, 11 of which lied within an electric vehicle. The flood water essentially acts as a catalyst causing the battery to erupt into flames.
Scientists confirmed that this combustion can occur within hours or weeks after an electric vehicle was submerged in salt water.
Hurricane Helene was not the first time this was experienced. Back in 2022, Hurricane Ian had extremely high vehicle damage reports, with many stemming from seemingly spontaneous combustion. In order to prevent this, experts were saying that anything that uses lithium-ion batteries needs to be moved out of a surge zone in which it may be exposed to saltwater. To many, this means you could not even leave your car in your garage, as flood water gets underneath very easily, and most people experience flooding still. Having it inside your home in this way put not only your car but also your home at high risk.
Auto insurance providers also issued warnings to their customers as the storm was brewing.
Geico sent messages suggesting customers find protected parking areas that were on higher ground. In combination with the state fire marshal warning, it was made clear to electric vehicle driving residents that this was a very extremely dangerous situation. Along with the advice to find safe, higher ground areas, tips were issued, such as leaving windows open to allow flammable gases to vent. At this time no data has been released confirming how many, if any, incidents like this occurred due to Hurricane Milton.
