The supposedly increased fire risk of electric cars has been discussed for a long time.
In the cities of Kulmbach and Leonberg, hybrid and electric cars are therefore no longer allowed to park in the underground garages.
Kulmbach / Leonberg - Electric cars do not burn more often, but are more difficult to extinguish.
The city of Kulmbach is therefore
taking the first steps
and blocking hybrid and electric cars:
"In
future, electric and hybrid cars will no longer be allowed to park in the underground car park," said Michael Kuhnlein from the Kulmbach civil engineering department to the
Infranken.de
portal
.
After underground garage fire: City of Kulmbach locks Tesla and Co. out
The ban goes back to a fire in September 2020.
At that time, an old VW * Golf was burning in the underground car park.
The underground car park was then renovated for five months for 195,000 euros.
Although the burned-out vehicle was a gasoline engine, the city and fire brigade feared an increased risk from electric cars: “The fire brigade cannot extinguish such vehicles, they have to let them burn out.
The underground car park is also not high enough to pull out burning cars with heavy equipment, ”explained Kuhnlein.
Electric cars do not pose a higher risk of fire
In fact, it has been discussed more often in the past whether Tesla * and Co. pose an increased risk of fire.
According to ADAC, the intensity of the fire does not depend on the type of drive, but on the materials used.
The working group of the heads of the professional fire brigades and the German Fire Brigade Association sees no increased risk of fire.
But extinguishing burning e-cars and hybrids is particularly difficult.
In recent weeks there have been increasing reports of difficult extinguishing work on burning electric and hybrid cars *.
Jochen Zehfuß from the Institute for Building Materials, Solid Construction and Fire Protection at the Technical University of Braunschweig said on
Deutschlandfunk
"The heat release rate is not significantly different, but it is more difficult to extinguish such an electric vehicle." In many electric and hybrid vehicles, the battery is deep Car built in and therefore difficult to access for extinguishing agents.
Extinguishing with water is therefore more complex and can take longer.
In the past, this fact meant that some e-cars had to be sunk in containers full of water to cool down the batteries.
Risk too high: Kulmbach is drawing first conclusions
The increased extinguishing time means that the built-in concrete and iron are exposed to the heat for longer.
The city of Kulmbach therefore fears that after a certain time the concrete could burst and the iron melt, which increases the risk of collapse.
In addition, the low ceiling height and the often angled entrances and exits to underground garages make it difficult to remove the vehicles that are still burning.
The city of Kulmbach is aware of the disadvantages for electric and hybrid drivers, but the dangers still outweigh the disadvantages.
In view of these dangers, the city is examining the ban to extend to further underground car parks.
So far there has been such a ban in the city of Leonberg in Baden-Württemberg.
On the city's website it says “For reasons of fire protection law, access to the Altstadt car park is currently not permitted for electric and hybrid vehicles.
Meanwhile, VW rival Hyundai has to call back over 80,000 electric cars to the workshop.
Root cause?
Possible fire hazard.
(
phf
)
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