Electric Scooter Catches Fire: Burns Down House And MG Hector [Video]
Reports of electric vehicles catching fire have been featured on our website several times. Here we have another incident from Kerala, where a TVS iQube electric scooter parked in the porch of a house caught fire. Not only did the scooter catch fire, but it also destroyed an MG Hector parked right next to it. The house also suffered damages in the fire.
The video has been shared by Under The Stars on their YouTube channel. If you want more info, refer to the detailed video (whose playback has been disabled) by clicking here . As per the video, the incident happened on 26th July in the early morning around 3:30–3:34 AM. This happened to Mr. Rajesh Kumar, who resides in the Tripunithura region of Ernakulam.
The video was captured by a CCTV camera installed at a neighbour’s house. In the video, we see a fire starting in the porch of Rajesh’s house at around 3:30 AM. There was probably a sound which woke up the neighbours.
They saw the scooter on fire and immediately informed the house owner. The family was sleeping on the first floor, and by the time they came down, the scooter had already caught fire. While trying to douse the flames, the owner noticed that the fire had started to spread towards his MG Hector as well. The front of the car had caught fire.
The owner acted immediately. He unlocked the car and pushed it out of the porch. Although he managed to move it, the front of the car had already caught fire, and later the entire car was completely engulfed in flames. The fire and rescue team reached the spot soon and managed to douse the fire, but by then the car, scooter, and house had already been damaged. In fact, the scooter was not even charging when the fire started.
Both his vehicles were damaged, and the porch of the house is now completely blackened from the fumes. The owner had bought the scooter 2 years ago and informed the dealership about the incident.
The owner mentions that the dealership staff initially promised to look into the matter and said they would offer compensation for the damage. However, after a week or so, they came back and told the owner that the fire didn’t start from the scooter. According to them, it was actually the charger that had a short circuit, which led to the fire.
The owner states that the TVS team is claiming the short circuit occurred because he left a wet umbrella next to the charging socket. The water from the umbrella allegedly dripped into the charger and caused the accident.
However, the owner insists that the fire started from the scooter, as the battery pack on the scooter was completely destroyed. The charger had melted due to the heat after the scooter caught fire. The fire then spread to his car.
The owner is unhappy with the service and overall experience. He mentions that he and his family narrowly escaped, as the vehicles were parked right under the room where they were sleeping. He says that the brand or dealership is not ready to admit there was an issue with the vehicle.
He had been trying to shift to EVs, but this near-death incident has left him scarred. In the video, he can be heard saying that he won’t be going back to an EV again. He has already bought another scooter for his use, as both his vehicles were destroyed in the fire.
In the video above, the owner says that he has lodged a complaint against the company for refusing to compensate properly for his losses. He further negates the manufacturer's claims of the fire to have occurred during charging, with proof. He shows the TVS mobile application which confirms that the previous charging had commenced a few days ago.
Time remains before we see how this case pans out and what compensatory measures are delivered to the unfortunate owner.