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Huge Fire Sparked by a Mercedes-Benz EV Adds to Safety Concerns Dogging Industry
WSJ ^ | 7 AUG 2024 | Jiyoung Sohn

Posted on 08/07/2024 4:06:54 PM PDT by DUMBGRUNT

Blaze in South Korea prompts debate over whether electric vehicles should be allowed in the country’s ubiquitous underground parking lots

The blaze incinerated dozens of cars nearby, scorched another 100 vehicles and forced hundreds of residents to emergency shelters as the buildings above the parking lot lost power and electricity. Nobody died, but the fire took eight hours to extinguish.

Outdoor residential parking lots are relatively uncommon. The nation’s ubiquitous high-rise apartments often feature underground parking, where firefighters must contend with restricted access.

One of the country’s largest telecommunications firms, KT, has held discussions about barring EVs from parking underground.

The relative ease in finding EV-designated parking spots in South Korea had been one reason why Choi Kyung-seok bought a Kia EV6 two months ago. He also likes the fuel-cost savings.

(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Humor; Travel
KEYWORDS: ecars; ev; evfire; fire
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A hot one for the FR Fire Brigade.
1 posted on 08/07/2024 4:06:54 PM PDT by DUMBGRUNT
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To: DUMBGRUNT

Same event? With video.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/news/mercedes-ev-explodes-sending-23-to-hospital/ar-AA1ooUry


2 posted on 08/07/2024 4:10:16 PM PDT by DUMBGRUNT ( "The enemy has overrun us. We are blowing up everything. Vive la France!"Dien Bien Phu last message)
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To: DUMBGRUNT

I want cops to start using these death traps for high speed chases and pit maneuvers.

A few high profile catastrophic fires in major US cities and this industry will go to the junk heap of history where it belongs.


3 posted on 08/07/2024 4:11:41 PM PDT by cgbg ("Our democracy" = Their Kleptocracy)
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To: DUMBGRUNT

“Don’t look now, but your Mercedes has got ‘the Bends’.
Quick decompressure, due to a sudden, unexplained inferno!”


4 posted on 08/07/2024 4:12:58 PM PDT by lee martell
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To: DUMBGRUNT

About 25 years ago, I was working at a research institute with a good sized EV battery development program. Our EV Program built an experimental EV with a sodium sulfur battery. At that time, you had to keep the battery at about 600 degrees F to keep the salts molten (lots of work since then on lower temperature Na-S batteries).

Sure enough, one day the battery leaked liquid sodium-sulfur on the asphalt parking lot and WHOOM! up she went in flames. The fire took out a couple of employee cars on both sides of the EV.

So EV battery fires have been around a long time.


5 posted on 08/07/2024 4:14:08 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom (“When exposing a crime is treated like a crime, you are being ruled by criminals” – Edward Snowden)
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To: DUMBGRUNT

Hey honey, I’m bleeding out from a wound, we need to get to the hospital.

The car won’t start???
The car is burning up???


6 posted on 08/07/2024 4:14:43 PM PDT by leaning conservative (snow coming, school cancelled, yayyyyyyyyy!!!!!!)
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To: DUMBGRUNT

These measures are long overdue considering the frequency of these battery fires.


7 posted on 08/07/2024 4:15:21 PM PDT by exPBRrat
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To: DUMBGRUNT

Then stop sending your EVs here.


8 posted on 08/07/2024 4:15:49 PM PDT by Fungi
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

—”Sure enough, one day the battery leaked liquid sodium-sulfur on the asphalt parking lot and WHOOM! up she went in flames. The fire took out a couple of employee cars on both sides of the EV.”

I worked at BP R&D in Naperville, IL and we never had anything that exciting.
And I cannot even think about the safety review and the many repercussions!

But we did have an abandoned Nike missile silo, just outside my building and we could look it up on old maps.


9 posted on 08/07/2024 4:30:42 PM PDT by DUMBGRUNT ( "The enemy has overrun us. We are blowing up everything. Vive la France!"Dien Bien Phu last message)
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To: DUMBGRUNT

Relax these massive fires are just part of saving the planet ,D’oh


10 posted on 08/07/2024 4:38:43 PM PDT by butlerweave
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To: DUMBGRUNT

They need some sort of sign on the cars to let everyone know so they can back off.


11 posted on 08/07/2024 4:45:21 PM PDT by roving (Deplorable Erectionists Listless Vessel )
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To: butlerweave
Yes, they are environmentally friendly, non-greenhouse gas emitting, carbon consuming eco-fires.

Of course, the carbon it consumes is often the passengers or by-standers.

12 posted on 08/07/2024 4:51:24 PM PDT by sjmjax
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To: DUMBGRUNT

They just discovered this? EV battery fires have been a real problem since EVs started proliferating. Extremely difficult to extinguish and prone to reigniting weeks or months after first extinguished.


13 posted on 08/07/2024 4:56:10 PM PDT by from occupied ga (Your government is your most dangerous enemy - EVs a solution for which there is no problem)
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To: DUMBGRUNT

Most of the downtown partying garages I know have very low ceilings which would restrict access by most Fire Engines.

Although there are not people living above them getting fire fighters and their equipment to the car is restricted by the structure.

I can not think of any reason that a lithium battery powered vehicle should be permitted to access such a parking garage.


14 posted on 08/07/2024 4:56:23 PM PDT by Pontiac (The welfare state must fail because it is contrary to human nature and diminishes the human spirit.)
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To: sjmjax

This one shows a man holding what looks like a large motorcycle batter on an elevator. Doors close and it starts to burn.

It appears to be in China.

This is hard to watch so you’ve been warned:

https://nypost.com/video/man-engulfed-in-flames-after-lithium-battery-blows-up-in-elevator/


15 posted on 08/07/2024 5:08:39 PM PDT by packagingguy
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To: DUMBGRUNT

My brother-in-law and his wife are Gaia worshiping EV lefties. They’re upper middle class so they’re able to take advantage of the free taxpayer money that I cannot. His wife totaled their second ev, a volvo. It appears that she broadsided the front left wheel well of a car at an intersection. The picture of the other car was not really that bad at all. Her Volvo was creepy scary it was so smashed up. He actually made out quite well on the financial end of it surprisingly enough. But what I found enlightening was that they went back to the dealer and bought the exact same car in a different color. Now if you had seen the damage to her car compared to the damage to the guy she ran into that you would wonder why in the world would you buy another car like that? It was literally totaled. I don’t know how she walked away from it. But as good leftist they went and bought another of the same thing. WTH


16 posted on 08/07/2024 5:23:11 PM PDT by ChildOfThe60s ("If you can remember the 60s....you weren't really there")
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To: DUMBGRUNT

only saw a .gif.

however, also mentioned:

More than 20 people are in hospital after a Mercedes-Benz electric car burst into flames in a South Korean car park. The car exploded and damaged more than 100 cars parked nearby. The fire released a cloud of toxic smoke into the building above, which left 23 people in need of medical attention.


17 posted on 08/07/2024 5:25:26 PM PDT by MAGAthon
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To: DUMBGRUNT

I know someone who lives in a very high dollar tower condo. The center of the tower is parking. He drives up 14 levels so he parks next to the condo door. I can’t imagine the EV inferno.


18 posted on 08/07/2024 5:40:41 PM PDT by cyclotic (Don’t be part of the problem. Be the entire problem)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

Molten sulfur is nothing to be trifled with.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Marine_Sulphur_Queen


19 posted on 08/07/2024 6:56:08 PM PDT by Paal Gulli
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To: Pontiac

I can not think of any reason that a lithium battery powered vehicle should be permitted to access such a parking garage.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I have a 2 hour ferry crossing I need to take in the summer to get to a summer cabin. Four years ago, I wrote a letter to the ferry operator asking them what their policy was concerning EVs and what provision had they made for dealing with onboard EV fires. No response... so another letter and so on. It’s hard to imagine burying their head in the sand over this issue. The potential for a serious catastrophe on a ferry is huge.

Do they allow EVs to go through long tunnels like the Chunnel? What is their policy and what provisions have they made for something like an EV fire?


20 posted on 08/07/2024 8:04:53 PM PDT by hecticskeptic
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