Electric vehicles in Florida have been catching on fire after becoming waterlogged during Hurricane Ian, which brought massive rain and flooding to the state.

Florida's top financial officer and fire marshal Jimmy Patronis on Thursday said firefighters had encountered a number of fires caused by electric vehicle (EV) batteries waterlogged from the hurricane, Fox News reported. Patronis noted that fires start "as those batteries corrode."

"There's a ton of EVs disabled from Ian... That's a new challenge that our firefighters haven't faced before. At least on this kind of scale," he tweeted.

Patronis continued to say that it takes special training and an understanding of EVs to ensure that the fires are put out quickly and safely. He then thanked the North Collier Fire Rescue for their hard work.

Patronis published a video of firefighters in Naples, Florida, fighting a fire that started from a Tesla EV's battery. A bystander can be heard on the video saying that the crew had used hundreds of gallons of water in an effort to put out the fire.

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Electric Vehicles Catching Fire in Florida

Footage of the same vehicle fire posted on Facebook by the North Collier Fire Rescue District shows firemen drenching the car's top and underbelly with water to eliminate any sparks. 

New York Post reported that the rescue district said firefighters received the call while Jimmy Patronis and state Rep. Bob Rommel visited the area. The state officials were there to witness the difficulty of extinguishing EV fires and how firefighters took hours to ensure that the fire was put out.

The district wrote on Facebook that the vehicles have been submerged in salt water, adding that they have "extensive damage and can potentially be serious fire hazards." The Florida Department of Agriculture earlier issued a report that posed a warning for electric vehicles in the state.

The report found that major hurricanes with widespread power outages could leave EV drivers "stranded without transportation for days."

The report prompted the state's Department of Transportation and the Department of Motor Vehicles to quickly build up rapid charging stations, with investments in portable charging stations, according to WLRN News.

Hurricane Ian in Florida

Hurricane Ian reportedly killed at least 109 people in the United States, and 105 were recorded in Florida. CNN reported that around 400,573 customers in Florida were without electricity based on PowerOutage.us data.

More than 2,300 rescues have been made, and over 1,000 urban search rescue personnel have checked structures. Meanwhile, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said that the national media wanted Hurricane Ian to hit Tampa Bay.

According to Axios, DeSantis noted that the media did not care "about the people of this state," and wanted to use storms to "advance their agenda." He further claimed that the coverage of the deadly storm was motivated by a "political agenda."

READ MORE: Tropical Storm Ian Path: Strength, Current Location, and When It Will Hit Florida, Revealed

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Written by: Mary Webber

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