Farzier Avenue vehicle fire cause

The Frazier Avenue fire a month ago has a cause. An electric vehicle.

Electric vehicles are becoming more popular.

Shawn Stiger a senior insurance agent says, “We are seeing a lot more Teslas, we are seeing a lot more E.V’s, we are seeing a lot more in production. We are seeing a lot of Cyber Trucks throughout town too. Claim wise it is still a small percentage of claims because they are just now catching on here.”

The fire on Frazier Avenue was caused by an EV catching on fire.

Stiger says insurance companies are aware this can happen.

“I do stay very connected with the insurance community. Things that are publications for industry professionals and we have seen more and more articles come out about EV fires happening with particular models of vehicles. They have also known this could’ve been a problem from the beginning.”

What happens when one of these electric cars catch on fire?

“The vehicle is just going to be destroyed. Think of it this way a lot of times if there is fire in the vehicles it is also catching other things around it on fire too,” said Stiger.

That is what happened in this case as well, and the frequency of these fires are increasing according to Stiger.

“It is known. Most insurance agencies that have seen these EV’s come online, we have seen the frequencies of these types of reports come up in our publications we keep our eye on.”

Fire’s caused by electric vehicles are rare.

Stiger says, “If you have an electric vehicle insurance companies aren’t saying oh that is going to catch on fire. The truth is that even though there is a rise in these reports everyone’s electric vehicle is not catching on fire. It is still less than 1% of articles that I am seeing.”

This was Chattanooga’s first instance of a major electric vehicle fire.