National Forensic Service Notifies Police of Detailed Analysis Results
Fire Originated from Battery Pack Mounted Under Vehicle
Failure to Extract Data from Battery Management System
The electric vehicle fire in the underground parking lot of an apartment in Incheon that occurred on the 1st of last month may have been caused by damage to the vehicle's battery cells due to an external impact, according to the forensic results from the National Forensic Service.
On the 20th, Yonhap News reported that the Scientific Investigation Unit of the Incheon Police Agency received these detailed forensic results from the National Forensic Service the day before. The National Forensic Service analyzed, "It is possible that the fire started from the battery pack under the vehicle," adding, "Damage to the cells inside the battery pack caused by an external impact on the underside of the vehicle could have led to 'insulation breakdown' (a phenomenon where the insulator loses its properties), which may have triggered the fire."
However, the National Forensic Service explained that the Battery Management System (BMS) was severely damaged by intense combustion during the fire, making data extraction impossible. The BMS stores information such as total battery operating time, cumulative charge and discharge amounts, charge status, and the number of rapid charges.
On the 8th of last month, police, fire department, the National Forensic Service, Mercedes-Benz, and other related personnel conducted a second joint inspection of the electric vehicle where the fire occurred. [Photo by Yonhap News]
Earlier, the police conducted three joint inspections on the Mercedes-Benz electric vehicle where the fire initially broke out in the underground parking lot of an apartment in Cheongna-dong, Seo-gu, Incheon on the 1st of last month, and secured the battery pack to request a detailed forensic examination from the National Forensic Service. Considering that the Mercedes-Benz electric vehicle was parked around 7:16 PM on July 29 and caught fire about 59 hours later, the police plan to investigate the vehicle owner's activities before parking.
Analysis of the on-site closed-circuit television (CCTV) confirmed that there was no external impact on the vehicle from the time the Mercedes-Benz owner last parked until the fire broke out. A police official told Yonhap News, "Based on the National Forensic Service's results, we will first look into whether there was any suspicious external impact before the last parking time."
The electric vehicle owner reportedly said, "I had the electric vehicle regularly inspected last year," and "I drove it well without any special problems until the fire occurred." It is known that the vehicle was equipped with a Chinese Parasis battery, ranked among the top 10 worldwide.
Separately, the police are continuing investigations into the apartment management office's safety management. They judged that the damage worsened because the sprinkler did not operate properly immediately after the fire broke out in the electric vehicle. Earlier, the police booked three people without detention on charges of professional negligence causing injury, including A, a night shift worker at the apartment management office, and B, the fire safety manager. It was investigated that A pressed the stop button linked to the 'solenoid valve' right after the fire broke out, stopping the sprinkler operation.
As a result of this fire, 23 residents and others inhaled smoke and were taken to the hospital, 87 vehicles were burned, and 783 vehicles were scorched. Additionally, problems occurred in the building's electrical and water piping systems, causing some households to suffer power and water outages for about a week, resulting in significant inconvenience. Some households still cannot return home due to ongoing dust and harmful gases rising from the fire site.
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