An electric vehicle (EV) was determined to be the cause of a significant apartment fire last month on Frazier Avenue in Chattanooga, marking what fire officials have described as the city’s “first large-scale incident related to an electric vehicle.”
“Residents were giving important information to the police and officers were relaying those details to the crews conducting searches and making rescues. You can also see and hear the compassion the first responders have on the scene as they help people fleeing their smoke-filled homes in the middle of the night,” authroties said.
The Chattanooga Fire Department (CFD) announced Friday that the fire at 417 Frazier Avenue was ruled accidental.
In the early morning hours of November 22, the fire caused extensive damage, burning two vehicles parked next to the EV and leaving most of the cars in the garage with heat-related damage.
CFD also released body camera footage highlighting the coordinated efforts of police and fire personnel as they worked together under intense circumstances to control the situation.
In October 2022, Florida officials were warning owners of electric vehicles that the automobiles are blowing up as a result of water damage from Hurricane Ian.
“There’s a ton of EVs disabled from Ian. As those batteries corrode, fires start,” Florida’s chief fire marshal Jimmy Patronis tweeted. “That’s a new challenge that our firefighters haven’t faced before. At least on this kind of scale.”
According to Patronis, EV batteries that have been submerged in water after the hurricane are at risk of corrosion, which could lead to potential fires.
