Homeowner Says Do Not Buy EVs After Mercedes EV Loaner Burns to a Crisp, Taking Her Home with It
A woman in Florida learned the hard way that having an electric vehicle is not exactly the best, or even safest, choice to make, and now she is warning others to steer clear of EVs.
Nocatee, Florida, resident Jennifer Ruotolo decided to take an electric vehicle that was a dealer loner home with her when she brought her own car to the shop for service. But it proved to be the biggest mistake she could have made at the time.
Ruotolo said she put the Mercedes 2023 EQE350+ in her garage when she got home, but on the morning of July 19, the worst happened.
The Mercedes Benz EV suddenly caught fire and nearly took her entire house with it.
Ruotolo now says that she wishes she had never brought an EV home.
“It was parked in the garage, about 22 hours and then it caught fire,” Ruotolo told WJXT. “I was at work. About 8:30 and my husband heard a hiss and a pop, and he went into the garage full of smoke. It engulfed in flames and exploded.”
The woman added that the electric car was just sitting there and was not on a charger or anything when it went up in flames.
It turns out the particular model had recently been recalled because computer systems were sometimes not alerting owners to battery problems. It is not known if the car Ruotolo was given had fulfilled its recall repairs.
Regardless, the woman is now sifting through her fire and soot-damaged home to see which of her belongings are worth saving.
She told the station that the fire “engulfed the entire garage, and as you can see to the attic, and to the second floor, and we believe the house is a tear down.”
The aggrieved homeowner is a bit miffed that the car she brought home from a dealer was so dangerous.
“As a loaner vehicle, we expected it would function and be safe,” an exasperated Ruotolo said. “I could be biased, but I don’t think they’re ready for market. This is Mercedes brand. I can’t speak for all of them, but I would not recommend buying one anytime soon.”
Still, she is glad her family escaped serious injury.
“I feel blessed that my husband is alive. He was right on the next side of the wall. He could be, should be dead, and he’s alive, and our puppy is alive, so I’m thankful for that,” Ruotolo said. “This could have been devastating and life-changing, but at this point it is just a challenge.”
Sadly, Ruotolo’s experience is nothing new. The number of fires sparked by malfunctioning EVs is growing by the month. And while gas-powered cars do catch fire more often that do EVs, the difference is that gas cars rarely catch fire just sitting in a garage. There are also a few other caveats in the statistics, WCSH reported in June.
Most gas car fires occur in older vehicles whereas EV fires happen among newer models. Also, gas-powered cars rarely catch fire unless they are in operation and not just sitting turned off in a garage or parking spot.
But firefighters all across the nation are warning EV owners to keep a very strict eye on their new cars because EV fires are extremely difficult to put out and burn hotter than gas car fires.
Lt. Tanner Morgan with the Grand Prairie Fire Department near Dallas told News Nation last year that fire departments are not properly equipped to deal with EV fires.
The firefighter went on to say that a gas-powered car typically takes less than 1,000 gallons of water to douse, but EVs are a bigger problem. When an electric vehicle catches on fire, firemen are faced with a “thermal runaway,” he said. These fires take 3,000 gallons — maybe more — to douse them, experts say.
EV fires are breaking out all across the country, too. In May, KSAZ-TV reported that a self-driving electric car burst into flames inside a building located in Phoenix, Arizona, causing thousands in damage.
Earlier in February, and also in Arizona, Scottsdale authorities reported that a Tesla that crashed into a building nearly burnt the place down when the battery pack caught fire. The biggest problem for firefighters in this case is that the battery fueled a second fire after they thought they had already put it out.
The month before that, a Tesla caught fire sitting in its owner’s garage in the dead of night only a few days after Christmas. The Tesla fire destroyed the EV, the garage, and another car in that garage, and it damaged the home, too.
Another Tesla fire was sparked on Interstate 80 in Pennsylvania when the EV burst into flames on the side of the road in November of last year. Firefighters were met with the same problem as the Arizona firemen noted above when the huge battery in the car kept reigniting the fire over and over again after firefighters thought they had doused it.
It isn’t just cars, either. As the Wall Street Journal recently noted, electric scooters and e-bikes are also prone to these unexpected and destructive fires.
This is an issue that few EV owners are warned about, but it is one that is cropping up over and over again. It’s just another reason not to buy these EVs and proof that they just aren’t ready for mass use.
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