CARMEL, Ind. (WISH) — An electric car fire at the Audi dealership on 96th Street over the weekend has highlighting the challenges firefighters are facing when EVs catch fire.

The lithium ion battery in the car is what gave firefighters such a challenge.

Tim Griffin, a spokesman for Carmel Fire Department, said, “The dealership did have a sprinkler system, which probably helped the spread, but it wasn’t putting that out. It took the firefighters and us getting hoses in there and on that car to cool it off enough to actually be able to move it.”

Griffin told I-Team 8 that fire departments across the country are still trying to figure out the best way to fight electric vehicle fires. “Every fire is difficult, right, but these are just a different set of difficulties and they do burn at a high level of heat and a lot of times they’re not going to go out.”

They experienced that with this fire as well. “We followed it on the wrecker because it did reignite a couple times while moving it out of the building.”

The Carmel Fire Department is not necessarily seeing more electric vehicle fires. They just have not perfected how to fight them.

“A new technology comes in and things change, so we treat it like we do. We adapt. We overcome,” Griffin said.

I-Team 8 called the Audi dealership where the fire happened to find out if it will change how they market electric vehicles, but no one had returned the call before the story aired Tuesday.