Huge fire caused by electric car destroys 140 other cars

Following the recent fire caused by an electric vehicle in Incheon, there is increasing demand for strengthening countermeasures against related accidents.

According to the National Fire Agency on August 4, electric vehicle fires are also on the rise due to the recent development of electric vehicle supply. A total of 160 electric vehicle fires occurred nationwide in South Korea in the six years from 2018 to 2023. In particular, the number of electric vehicle fires in underground parking lots of multi-use facilities, including apartments, increased from 0 in 2018 to 10 last year.

On August 1, at 6:15 am, a Mercedes-Benz electric car caught fire in the basement of an apartment building in Cheongna-dong, Seo-gu, Incheon, and was extinguished in 8 hours and 20 minutes. Immediately after the fire, hundreds of residents fled due to toxic gases, causing chaos at the scene, and it was estimated that about 70 vehicles in the parking lot were damaged at that time.

Camera footage from the scene shocked the internet when smoke began to billow from the back of a white Mercedes-Benz vehicle in an underground parking lot and then exploded, and flames spread.

Experts say avoiding overcharging is necessary to prevent fires in electric vehicles.

Lee Kwang-beom, former vice president of the Korea Institute for Automotive Safety and Research, said in an interview, "The fast charger stops charging at about 80% of the state of charge (SOC) because of the limited amount of charging, but the slow charger charges up to 100% of the state of charge (SOC) because there is no limit on the amount of charging," adding, "We need to prevent overcharging of electric vehicles by limiting the amount of charging for slow chargers located in underground parking lots."

Kim Dae-pil, an automotive professor at Daelim University, also told MBN Newswide that the reason for the electric vehicle fire was "the charging facility issue has little to do with the electric vehicle fire." There are many cases where an electric vehicle is overcharged and catches fire hours later. In other words, overcharging leads to battery damage that can result in a fire even hours after the power supply has run out.

Once an electric vehicle catches fire, it is much more difficult to extinguish the fire than a conventional internal combustion engine vehicle. Lithium batteries are difficult to extinguish with general powder fire extinguishers because they generate "thermal runaway", which creates even more heat when they catch fire. It only takes a minute or two to reach a thermal runaway situation. In particular, a fire in a closed underground parking lot can lead to a major disaster.

According to Hyundai Motor's safety manual, it is recommended to cool with at least 10 tons of water until the fire engine arrives, but this is practically impossible.

Bridgehill Fire Blankets

The only effective solution to extinguish fires in such a situation is the use of Bridgehill fire blankets . They allow extinguishing a classic vehicle in 20-30 minutes without the use of water or extinguishers and also isolate any fire caused by electric vehicles or lithium-ion batteries until the firefighters arrive, eliminating the risk of an extensive fire and high damage .

Present in numerous countries, with awards at various fairs for the efficiency of interventions in warehouses, underground parking lots, production areas, fire departments or car dealerships, BRIDGEHILL FIRE BLANKET is now also present in Romania through DISTREO.

This product was designed and manufactured in Norway.

The product comes in 2 variants:

• Standard
  • • Ideal for spaces with a high concentration of cars, such as parking garages, road tunnels, ferries and car repair shops.
• PRO X
  • • Can be reused up to a maximum of 30 times
    • Suitable for professional firefighters and other organizations that may have to deal with multiple fires. Blocks and isolates fire in electric vehicles.

To learn more about our products, visit the Distreo website. To not miss any posts on our blog, don't forget to sign up for the Newsletter!