<Anchor>
Today (26th) early in the morning, an electric car that was being charged caught fire in a residential area in Seoul, and residents were evacuated in a hurry.
It is presumed that the battery overheated and caught fire. Reporter Park Jae-yeon investigated whether there was any way to prevent this recurring accident.
<Reporter>
Black smoke billows from the yellow van.
At around 3:50 am this morning, a fire broke out in an electric van that was being charged in a residential area in Gangbuk-gu, Seoul.
[Kim Young-mi/Seoul Gangbuk-gu: The smoke is just over there on the first floor.
It was so foggy that I could only see the head of the car...
.]
About 20 nearby residents were evacuated at dawn due to concerns about an explosion.
[Nearby residents: (Neighbor) just woke up.
So then it came out.
Then I went (evacuated) to the ward office.]
What I see behind me now is a car on fire.
It is a 15-seater electric car, and the work of cooling the vehicle for over 7 hours is in progress.
Fire officials estimate that the fire started in the van's battery that was being charged.
In the case of a battery fire, the only option is to cool the vehicle by immersing it in water or wait until it burns out.
---
An electric car running near Mandeok Tunnel in Busan caught fire this morning, and a fire broke out at an electric car charging station near Oksu Station in Seoul five days ago.
The number of electric vehicle fires has been increasing over the past five years, most of which are caused by overheating of batteries.
[Lee Ho-geun/Professor of Automotive Department, Daedeok University: There were more cases of fire when charging was complete and left without removing from the charger...
.]
Experts advise that reducing the charging rate to 85% is helpful in preventing fires.
(Video editing: Lee Sang-min, VJ: Kim Jong-gap)