# Saltwater bath



## bwilson4web (Mar 4, 2019)

Source: Florida State Fire Marshal calls on Elon Musk, other EV producers for answers about vehicles catching fire from Hurricane Ian flooding

_Florida State Fire Marshal Jimmy Patronis has called for electric car companies to answer for electric vehicles that have burst into flames from the storm surge of Hurricane Ian._​…

Bob Wilson


----------



## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

I haven't seen any articles about cars combusting from flood damage. You'd think the media would be all over reporting about "spontaneously-combusting Teslas".


----------



## JasonF (Oct 26, 2018)

This is one of those scenarios no car company tests for, it just so happens that electrical equipment is more sensitive to saltwater than gasoline is.

The way I see it, one of three things is happening: 


1. A lot of saltwater is getting inside the battery - which I doubt, because then it would blow sky-high almost immediately, not wait until after the water recedes

2. It's causing the contactors to short out and weld shut, which causes them to gradually overheat until something nearby catches on fire.

3. Only a small amount of saltwater is getting into the battery, causing much the same situation as #2, but inside the battery instead of outside.


----------



## bwilson4web (Mar 4, 2019)

Given the delay, I could see a vent plug/hole with thermal cycling getting saltwater into a bad place. Pure speculation.

Personally I expect more ‘hair on fire’ articles. BTW, this was not the first time EVs have been flooded.

Bob Wilson


----------



## NR4P (Jul 14, 2018)

garsh said:


> I haven't seen any articles about cars combusting from flood damage. You'd think the media would be all over reporting about "spontaneously-combusting Teslas".


It's been on the news here in Florida. It's salt water from Hurricane Ian in SW Fla. that is the issue. The 12-15' rise in sea level submerged batteries for those on the shoreline and close to shore. Fire Marshall here stated that an EV takes 10K gallons of water to put the fire out where an ICE vehicle is 1K gallons.

ABC has a short video on it too yesterday, during the David Muir news. If you have Hulu, you can replay it. I think it was about halfway to latter part of the news stories.


----------



## JasonF (Oct 26, 2018)

NR4P said:


> Fire Marshall here stated that an EV takes 10K gallons of water to put the fire out where an ICE vehicle is 1K gallons.


That's one of those garbage statistics. The point is to prove that EV fires are so difficult to put out that they should be banned as dangerous fire hazards. Except the ratio of gas car fires to EV car fires is something like 100-to-1, which would be 100,000 gallons of water for gas vs 10,000 gallons of water for EV's - which one is the fire hazard now?

By the wait, airplane fires can take up to a million gallons of water to put put, I guess those should be banned as dangerous fire hazards too.


----------



## NR4P (Jul 14, 2018)

JasonF said:


> That's one of those garbage statistics. The point is to prove that EV fires are so difficult to put out that they should be banned as dangerous fire hazards. Except the ratio of gas car fires to EV car fires is something like 100-to-1, which would be 100,000 gallons of water for gas vs 10,000 gallons of water for EV's - which one is the fire hazard now?
> 
> By the wait, airplane fires can take up to a million gallons of water to put put, I guess those should be banned as dangerous fire hazards too.


Fire Marshall never said to ban anything. Did you watch the story? Did you research the number of cars that had this problem due to Ian? He called out for help in solving the problem.
It was valid and responsible. Never was anti-EV or anti-Tesla.


----------



## Power Surge (Jan 6, 2022)

Yes this story is all over Florida, and I've had to hear it from just about every person I know who knows I have a Tesla. 

From previous chats I've had with friend in the FD, the issue with EV battery fires, is that you can't put them out. They have to burn until they are done. The FD procedure for an EV battery fire is to flood with water until the battery is done burning. The water does not put the fire out. The water cools everything down until the fire burns out. The reason for the huge amount of water is because it takes hours for an EV battery to burn itself out. 

While this is not a common thing, I do see how it IS a concern that has to be dealt with.


----------

