Charging electric car sparks fire that destroys six vehicles in Seville, Spain

Charging electric car sets underground car park on fire in Seville

In the early hours of 17 October, a vehicle charging its battery in an underground car park on calle Parque de Doñana, in the Pino Montano district of Seville, caught fire. The flames spread to six other cars and to common areas, leaving three apartment blocks without power or water and two people injured. The incident reopens the debate over the safety of electric cars, particularly when they are charged in enclosed spaces.

A fire that is not easily put out

Firefighters needed 14 crews to bring the blaze under control, which generated temperatures capable of damaging reinforced concrete. A technical analysis points out that concrete exposed to more than 1,100 °C for 30 minutes loses its load-bearing capacity, and steel at 770 °C permanently loses 30% of its strength. Current fire door standards (90 minutes) and vermiculite protection (60 minutes) may not be enough to contain a lithium battery fire, which can supply itself with oxygen and is difficult to extinguish. While a combustion-engine car can be put out relatively easily, an electric one burns until the battery is consumed, prolonging the incident and increasing the structural risk.

Insurers under scrutiny

The total cost of the incident has not been calculated, but it covers the seven burnt-out vehicles, the structural damage to the car park, the common areas and the supply outages. Some voices warn that insurance premiums for electric cars could skyrocket if these fires become widespread. Indeed, shipping companies and insurers are already reluctant to cover the transport of Chinese electric vehicles, which have had to insure their own ships. The question of who is liable when an electric car burns out a shared car park remains unanswered.

The carbon footprint controversy

The incident has also peine the environmental debate. An electric car, which in theory emits nothing while in use, releases toxic gases when it burns and requires enormous amounts of water to extinguish. If it also destroys other vehicles and forces structures to be demolished or repaired, the total carbon footprint can exceed that of a combustion-engine car over its entire lifetime. The irony of the green narrative: what is sold as "zero emissions" can end up generating more pollution than a diesel in a single fire.

The Pino Montano episode is not an isolated one. Similar fires have been recorded in car parks in Madrid and Bilbao in recent months. Until intrinsically safe batteries – such as lithium iron phosphate – are developed, electric mobility in enclosed spaces will remain a risk that neither regulations nor insurers seem to have fully taken on board. The unsettling fact: the concrete and steel of a car park do not forget a fire like this; structural repair can cost more than the building itself.