E-car catches fire

Two expensive sports cars burn out during the night

The car caught fire after the accident.

(Bild: C. Stoxreiter)

Two burning sports cars kept the fire departments in Upper Austria on their toes on Friday night. After an accident near Lake Mondsee, an electric Audi caught fire and ignited again and again by itself. At almost the same time, a parked Porsche also caught fire.

On Thursday, the Tiefgraben, Guggenberg and Hof near Mondsee fire departments were alerted to a fire involving an electric car on Mondseebergstraße at 11.37 pm. "When we arrived at the scene, it turned out that this was no ordinary vehicle fire. The vehicle had been involved in a serious accident before the fire broke out," explains incident commander Johannes Schwaighofer.

Trees prevent vehicle crash
When the first emergency services arrived, there were no more people in the vehicle. Due to the force of the impact, the crash barrier was torn from its anchoring in several places and the vehicle was catapulted into the trees on the slope. Two large trees prevented the e-car from crashing. No one was injured in the accident.

E-car ignites again and again
The Tiefgraben fire department started the firefighting operation with water and foam. After the first extinguishing attack, only a little smoke could be seen. Suddenly, the electric car ignited again in the battery area and caught fire again. The vehicle ignited again and again. Due to this situation, the quarantine container of the Vöcklabruck fire department was alerted. The further extinguishing attacks were able to contain the flames and the reactions in the battery area came to a standstill.

The fire was finally brought under control with a lot of foam.

(Bild: C. Stoxreiter)

Quarantine container monitors e-car
The vehicle was recovered from the tricky position between the crash barrier and the trees on the slope using a towing company's crane. The quarantine container, which had arrived in the meantime, was set up in a nearby parking lot and the accident vehicle was lifted into it. The container's sensors measure whether there is another outbreak of fire. Should a fire break out again, the container's technology would send an emergency call to the regional warning center in Linz and the Tiefgraben fire department would be alerted again.

Fire in the engine compartment area
The sirens also sounded in Stadl-Paura at almost the same time. When the emergency services arrived at a parking lot, the front section of the car was in flames. It was initially unclear whether there were any people in the Porsche, but the affected area and the interior of the car were checked immediately, and fortunately the all-clear was given that no people were in danger.

The fire department subsequently carried out extinguishing measures, the driver's door was then opened using hydraulic rescue equipment and the fire was finally extinguished.