Why do electric vehicles frequently cause fires, and what legal consequences will car owners bear for this? How should relevant departments, streets and communities be managed and prevented?
How to prevent electric vehicles from "burning"
Changsha Evening News All Media Reporter Liu Qi
November 9 is the 31st National Fire Protection Publicity Day. This year's theme is "Fighting Fire Safety and Ensuring High-Quality Development".
According to the latest data released by the Fire and Rescue Bureau of the Ministry of Emergency Management a few days ago, in the first ten months of this year, the fire department received a total of 18,000 electric mopeds (including electric bicycles and tricycles) fires, an increase of 25.7% over the same period last year.
Among them, many spontaneous combustion accidents occur during charging.
Some time ago, the two cases of casualties caused by electric vehicle fires in Changsha last year were "finalized", and the verdicts were successively announced.
While we mourn the loss of life, we should also deeply reflect on what lessons have been left from these two accidents?
How to effectively prevent such tragedies from happening again?
Where is the difficulty in the fire safety management of electric vehicles?
In the past few days, reporters have launched an investigation into this.
case lessons
Unauthorized modification of the battery and charging of the flying lead will bring disaster
A second-hand lithium battery in trouble
At about 5:20 a.m. on July 18 last year, an electric car parked on the first floor of Building 13, Fengjiachong Apartment, Yuhua District, broke down. The flames quietly burst out, and the fire gradually became larger. The other two cars parked in the stairwell. Electric cars were also set on fire.
Thick smoke, fires, and deflagrations woke the sleeping residents.
"It's on fire!" "Call the police!" Some people actively rescue themselves, and Xiao Li, who lives on the 4th floor, is one of them.
"It was also the first time I encountered such a thing, and I was very scared. I went out to check the fire. There was too much smoke and I couldn't see the way. The temperature in the corridor was very high." She thought to herself, "It may be safer to go back to the room." Later , Xiao Li went to the hospital for a hanging needle and nebulization, and his throat was uncomfortable for several days.
Some people were desperate and fled to the safety zone - Xiao Zhou accidentally fell high when escaping from the fire, causing serious head injury. After treatment failed, he died, and his young life came to an abrupt end.
As unfortunately as Xiao Zhou, Liu Moumou, who rented the place, died of multiple organ failure due to extensive burns on his entire body.
In addition, many people were injured in the electric vehicle fire accident.
Why did the electric car catch fire, and how did it cause such great harm?
The reporter reviewed the accident.
Beginning on September 8, 2019, a landlord, Li Moumou, leased the 1st to 5th floors of Fengjiachong Apartment Building 13 to a second landlord, Zhu Moumou, who sublet the apartment to others.
Many tenants who live here have electric cars. Seeing that someone is charging the power supply privately, Zhu Moumou thought it would be safer to charge at the fixed charging location arranged by him, so he privately invited someone to charge at the apartment in November of that year. There are 6 sockets installed in the stairwell and the outer wall of the first floor for the tenants to charge their electric vehicles, and a charging fee ranging from 30 yuan to 50 yuan per month for each electric vehicle is charged.
In this regard, Li Moumou only verbally informed that the sockets he installed would have potential safety hazards, and did not take any effective measures.
Beginning in June 2020, Ouyang rented a room on the second floor from Zhu Mou, and worked in takeaway delivery.
In order to make the electric vehicle he rides have a longer mileage, he privately replaced the original lead-acid battery of the electric vehicle with a second-hand lithium battery of unknown origin.
The night before the fire, Ouyang parked the electric car in the stairwell on the first floor after get off work, and used the socket installed by Zhu to charge.
In the early morning of the next day, the electric vehicle failed to charge and caused a fire.
On January 21 this year, the Yuhua District People's Procuratorate filed a public prosecution with the Yuhua District People's Court. The public prosecution agency believed that the defendants Ouyang, Zhu and Li caused a fire due to their negligence and caused many casualties. criminal responsibility.
The court made a judgment in accordance with the law: the defendant Ouyang committed the crime of fire, and was sentenced to four years in prison; the defendant Zhu, committed the crime of fire, and was sentenced to three years in prison; the defendant Li, committed the crime of fire, and was sentenced to one year and six years in prison month, suspended for two years.
B "flying wire charging" causes tragedy
In another electric car fire accident, 3 people died after being burnt.
The criminal judgments of the Tianxin District and Changsha Municipal People's Courts revealed more details of the accident.
At about 19:00 on August 21 last year, the defendant, Zou, parked the electric car with a privately modified battery next to the first floor of his rented house, connected the charger from the rented house, and pulled the charging cable into the corridor to check the electric car. to charge.
At about 23:00 that day, the electric vehicle caused a fire due to a charging failure. Cheng Moumou, Zhang Moumou, and Wu Moumou died after being burnt.
The court held that Zou's negligence caused the fire and caused the serious consequences of the death of three people, and his behavior constituted the crime of fire.
The investigation found that Zou and Chen had known each other for many years, knew about Chen's recycling of used batteries, and purchased old batteries recovered by Chen for many times.
Zou, a person with experience in electric vehicle maintenance, should have foreseen that the used battery that he replaced without authorization for the electric vehicle may cause adverse consequences such as explosion and fire during the charging process, but he did not foresee it due to negligence.
Waste batteries and charging failures are the direct causes of fires, and the serious consequences of fires are inseparable from the charging of "flying wires" in the corridor.
Courts at both levels held that if a fire occurred when an electric vehicle was placed in a residential area for charging, the defendant, as the person directly responsible for the fire, should bear full responsibility for the results of the fire.
Hazardous experiment
Electric vehicle fire hazards are mainly manifested in high temperature and toxic smoke
The electric vehicles that shuttle in the streets and alleys of the city have the characteristics of economy, environmental protection and small size, which bring a lot of convenience to citizens.
It is conservatively estimated that the number of electric vehicles in Changsha exceeds 1 million.
Why do electric vehicles frequently cause fires and become "killers"?
According to statistics, the main reasons for the frequent occurrence of electric bicycle fires are the poor quality of electric bicycle batteries, users' random modification, and long-term charging.
The fire department has conducted electric vehicle experiments.
The firefighters ignited the kindling, and the underside of the electric vehicle's seat began to burn, and black smoke gradually emerged; about 20 seconds later, the polymer material of the body began to melt; 1 minute later, the rear half of the body had begun to burn violently, with a large amount of toxic smoke. Emergence; After the violent combustion lasted for 1 minute and 30 seconds, the lithium battery was ignited, and then the fire showed a small-scale deflagration phenomenon, and some burning objects even splashed 20 meters away.
What would happen if an electric car fire broke out in a stairwell?
In the abandoned building, less than 1 minute after the start of the experiment, the fire expanded rapidly, and the burning electric car emitted thick smoke and quickly spread upstairs.
Subsequently, the battery exploded, and the entire burning process lasted about 10 minutes before it stopped.
After the electric car caught fire, the thermometer showed that the temperature of the ignition point rose rapidly, and the highest temperature exceeded 500 °C.
High temperature, hot smoke, and airflow spread rapidly, forming a "chimney effect" in the corridor, which quickly spread to the highest floor.
If citizens lack self-help knowledge and blindly run from top to bottom along the stairwell, they will be easily injured by the toxic fumes emitted by electric vehicles, and in severe cases, they will lose their lives.
"Some citizens park their electric vehicles indoors or charge them indoors, and some even park them in public areas such as walkways and stairwells. In some old communities, 'flying line charging' is repeatedly prohibited. Since most of the electric vehicles are flammable Combustible materials, once caught on fire, burn quickly and produce a large amount of toxic fumes, making it difficult for people to escape and easily causing casualties." The fire supervisor of the Changsha Fire Rescue Detachment introduced that the hazards of electric vehicle fire are mainly manifested in high temperature and toxic fumes. Gas, and toxic fumes can easily lead to casualties.
Studies have shown that lithium batteries are more likely to cause casualties once they detonate and catch fire.
Compared with lead-acid batteries, lithium batteries of the same volume have higher density and more energy storage. After deflagration and fire, its flame is jet-like, and the temperature of the fire source is also higher. At the same time, a large amount of toxic and harmful gases will be released, which is a serious threat. life safety.
However, in order to make electric vehicles run "faster and farther", some electric vehicle owners have quietly replaced batteries for their vehicles, most of which are lithium batteries.
The reporter found that more than half of the electric vehicle fires occurred during the charging time at night. In order to save trouble, many car owners often put the electric car in the corridor or living room to charge overnight before going to bed, and a few car owners removed the battery pack from the car. Recharge at home.
"The period from early morning to dawn is often when people are asleep. Once a fire occurs, it is difficult to detect it in time, and it is even too late to escape." The fire supervisor introduced.
reporter visit
Electric vehicles are parked in public places or charged upstairs in chaos, making it difficult to supervise the property
In the past few days, the reporter visited some communities with a large number of electric vehicles to listen to the voices of electric vehicle owners, property staff and other groups.
Li Xiaojun (pseudonym), 22, is a food delivery rider.
Two years ago, he bought a brand electric car from an electric car store.
"I run more orders every day. As time goes by, I find that the car runs slower and slower, and the cruising range decreases." Li Xiaojun found a car repair shop and replaced the original battery with a "big" lithium battery.
He believes that the battery is new and should be fine.
"Why do you park your car at the door? It's convenient! After you park the car, go upstairs, go downstairs, and put it in the parking shed when charging." In a small area of Yuhua District, citizen Liu Xu (pseudonym) put his own The electric car stopped at the door of the unit building.
"In case of fire, how to escape?" the reporter asked.
Liu Xu said that he did not think about this issue.
In life, many citizens often find that electric vehicles block the door of unit buildings; what's more, they park electric vehicles in public places such as the lobby and stairwell on the first floor, and some people push electric vehicles into elevators to charge upstairs.
"Saving money", "convenience" and "anti-theft" are all excuses given by them.
At the same time, due to the early construction time of some communities, especially old communities, there are no planned places for electric vehicle parking and charging, or such places are far away from the residence, resulting in chaos in parking and charging, and great potential safety hazards.
"Property is not a law enforcement department, no matter, the owner has opinions; it is often difficult to manage, and others may not listen to us." Wang Shuang (pseudonym), a property practitioner, said frankly that electric vehicles are relatively mobile, and sometimes they have just been cleaned up. The electric cars parked indiscriminately have caused new problems; many car owners are not community owners but tenants, and they often "can't find the right owner after working for a long time."
Because the property management company is not a law enforcement agency, Wang Shuang and his colleagues are often "scolded" even if they persuade them with good words, and their efforts are not appreciated.
After going back and forth, he simply chose to "lie down" and take care of it when the owner complained.
The reporter learned from interviews that the lack of safety awareness of some electric vehicle users has led to a large number of illegal charging behaviors, which is an important reason for the disaster.
At the same time, the lack of mandatory national standards for lithium batteries for electric bicycles, the quality of some batteries is difficult to guarantee, and the “chaos” such as vehicle modification, battery installation, and difficulty in recycling and use of second-hand lithium batteries, further exacerbating safety risks.
Industry insiders believe that the reason for the frequent occurrence of the above-mentioned chaos is that in addition to the lack of market supervision, another important reason is that the relevant mandatory national standards have not yet been issued.
If the battery that exceeds the standard is replaced, it does not match the original vehicle settings, circuit and charger, etc., it is easy to cause overcharge and fire.
Remediation measures
Build new parking spaces and charging facilities, and incorporate electric vehicle management into 24-hour inspections
How to crack the fire management dilemma of electric vehicles and avoid the recurrence of the tragedy?
Fire departments and other departments continued to carry out actions and took multiple measures to solve problems.
In Qingshuitang Street, the small electric box for electric vehicles that has just been put into use has won praises from the public.
"It is difficult to develop a centralized charging place in the old city, and there are great safety hazards in such behaviors as flying line charging and home charging." The relevant person in charge of the street introduced that after on-site investigation, they launched a small electric box-charging box according to local conditions. The external wires have been protected by pipes, and the laying is standardized, so it will not get hot when used for a long time; although it is small in size, it is equipped with an overload protection device, which can prevent electric leakage and lightning strikes, and can be used safely in cloudy and rainy days.
What is the actual effect?
The reporter visited Yaozheng Street and saw that there have been fewer irregular and unsafe charging behaviors in the past, and it is more convenient and safer for citizens to use electric vehicles.
In a special inspection, the fire supervisors of the Furong District Fire Rescue Brigade joined the street and community staff to go deep into the Mapoling community to rectify the chaos of electric vehicles such as "flying line charging" and "random parking".
During the inspection process, fire supervisors will focus on checking whether there are electric vehicles parked and illegally charged at corridor entrances and evacuation passages, whether there are electric vehicle charging piles in the community, setting up electric vehicle parking spots, fire extinguishers, fire hydrants and other fire-fighting equipment in the community. complete and intact.
The fire department requires that the property company should earnestly fulfill its fire safety responsibilities, conscientiously implement safety precautions, implement unified management of electric vehicle charging, do a good job in fire prevention inspections and safety publicity, and incorporate the daily management of electric vehicles into the 24-hour inspection to ensure timely detection and Eliminate potential safety hazards, timely stop and correct bad fire behaviors such as occupying and blocking fire passages and illegal charging of electric vehicles.
In view of the prominent characteristics of electric vehicle fires in residential quarters, the Changsha County Housing and Property Management Department took the lead in organizing property service enterprises and communities to vigorously carry out publicity and warning education on electric vehicle fire accidents.
The county conducted a thorough investigation of high-rise residential buildings, actively rectified the illegal parking and charging behavior of electric vehicles, and the fire department promptly urged the property unit to investigate and deal with the problem of inadequate fire management performance of property units.
In response to the issue of charging sites, Changsha County has conducted a thorough investigation of the charging facilities in the county's residential communities, and has issued a management method of "rewarding investment with rewards" to build a number of electric vehicle parking places and charging facilities in the county.
"Eliminating the hidden dangers of electric vehicle fire safety is a systematic project involving different levels of top-level design, legal protection, and implementation. It requires relevant departments to effectively manage and protect them." Industry insiders pointed out that solving the problem of electric vehicle fire protection Security issues require more social co-governance solutions.