A fire broke out in a Tesla electric vehicle parked on a road in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea, on August 16.
It occurred just days after a similar incident in Incheon’s Cheongna district where a fire in a parked Mercedes electric vehicle led to damage to around 90 vehicles in an underground parking lot.
According to fire authorities, the blaze occurred around 7:40 p.m. in a Tesla parked on the roadside in Yongin. The vehicle’s owner reported the fire to the 119 Emergency Response Center, prompting a swift response.
The fire department dispatched 57 personnel and 20 units of firefighting equipment, including pump trucks, to the scene. Firefighters worked to extinguish the flames by deploying fire suppression blankets and a portable water tank, successfully bringing the fire under control within three hours and fully extinguishing it after four hours.
No injuries were reported as a result of the fire. Fire authorities are set to conduct a thorough investigation to determine the exact cause of the blaze once the site is fully secured.
Meanwhile, fueled by a recent Mercedes explosion in an underground parking garage in Incheon, many people are joining a growing chorus of potential car buyers in the country fearful of the once-touted vehicle type, a trend that even inspired claims of “EV-phobia” in local headlines.
Due to the car’s explosion on August 1, around 480 households suffered a power outage at an apartment complex. The number of damaged cars amounted to 140. Forty of them were burned while around 100 vehicles suffered energy loss and were scorched.
BY HYEJEONG JEONG, YOUNGNAM KIM [jeong.hyejeong@joongang.co.kr]
