A Mercedes-Benz EQE, had a terrible accident in the underground apartment complex parking lot in Incheon, South Korea. The fallout is an explosion that sent toxic fumes to a hospital and hospitalised 21 people, damaged other 70 vehicles.

The fire broke out early in the morning from the first basement floor of the apartment building complex. The CCTV footage has captured that the electric sedan was parked and had white smoke, likely from its floor-mounted battery.

Moments later, it exploded, and the fire extended toward the other cars nearby. The Incheon Fire Department reported that 177 people were dispatched to the scene with 80 pieces of equipment. It took eight hours to put off the fire. Even though EV fires are harder to combat, they are relatively rarer than those in ICE vehicles.

Emergency responders

Heavy smoke made 209 residents flee their apartments, and firefighters rescued nearly half of them from stairs and balconies. Of the 20 residents hospitalised for smoke inhalation, there were seven infants and children under 10, along with one firefighter.

The blaze damaged about 70 nearby vehicles. Black smoke billowed into the sky with 197 emergency calls to the fire department.

Investigation and speculation

The police and fire department have already opened an investigation into the cause of the fire. Experts have suspected that before the incident, the Mercedes EQE might have been involved in a collision that damaged the battery and consequently overheated. While Mercedes-Benz doesn't confirm this, it's known the EQE sedan uses a CATL-sourced lithium-ion battery pack with 90.6 kWh of capacity.

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A spokesperson of the local Mercedes-Benz told the Korea JoongAng Daily in an interview: "We can't confirm the exact model and batteries at the moment. We will take this issue very seriously and will do our best to collaborate with fire authorities to determine the exact cause.".

This tragic incident has thus exposed a potential risk with electric vehicles, more so regarding the safety of their batteries. The investigation in progress and will likely bring out more clarity and lead to enhanced safety measures to prevent such occurrences in the future.

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