Do you park in a building with an EV charging station? A big insurance company is removing them from its car parks because of “fire risk”
From this article dated 7 October 2024 here:
“State Farm is removing electric vehicle charging stations from its parking decks at Corporate and Corporate South headquarters in Bloomington, and at its hubs throughout the nation. The move is effective as of Oct. 28, according to a message sent to company employees.”
““While we understand the impact to those who rely on EV charging, it is our top priority to ensure a safe and secure working environment for our employees." states the message. "Following an Enterprise Risk Assessment and evaluations conducted by local fire departments and workplace protection in each hub and corporate headquarters, fire risks were identified in the parking garages that cannot be mitigated at this time.”
S, take a look round your car parking building and ask whether you ca assess a risk better than an insurance company!
Onwards!!!
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I live near these building. Now what is interesting here is that until quite recently State Farm had rented out hundreds of parking spaces in their lots next their parking decks. They stored maybe 800 of the Rivian trucks there for nearly 6 months. My daughter lives right next to this area. I was concerned (she was too) that there would be a fire that would send toxic smoke into her subdivision. She would have trouble evacuating quickly so we were both concerned. Finally they moved their flame-trucks back over to their plant parking lot. Not long after that 50 of their flame-trucks burned up in their plant parking lot. It’s on the edge of town and not near housing so the huge cloud of toxic smoke that was emitted from the fire just blew out into the surrounding fields. So State Farm became VERY aware at that point about what type of REAL danger these EVs pose. They don’t want their billion dollar buildings (connected to the parking decks) to burn up. FYI - the fire and smoke from 50 of these flame-trucks burning was huge.
I shudder to think of all high rising buildings with several floors of parking garages now full of EVs. Especially residential high rise buildings. Thanks god I live in a house not a condo.