Car on charger at Walibi catches fire: six electric cars burned down and placed in special immersion tanks.
Six cars caught fire this afternoon in a car fire in the parking lot of Walibi Holland in Biddinghuizen. No people were injured.
As a precaution, the six electric cars are placed in a special immersion bath to cool down.
The fire started around a quarter to three in an electric car that was on the charger. The fire brigade could not prevent the flames from spreading to five other electric cars that were around the burning vehicle.
“The visitors were all in the park at that time,” says Walibi spokesman Marco Wensveen. “We closed the gates as a precaution so that the fire brigade could work freely. We hope that the people who own the cars will not be too shocked.”
It is not yet clear how the fire started, according to a spokesman for the fire service. According to him, the six cars were completely burnt out. “In addition, three other cars that were nearby were damaged by the heat of the flames. They are also taken by the salvage operator.”
Immersion tanks
To prevent the batteries from spontaneously combusting, the six burned-out cars are placed in special immersion trays. These are fairly deep containers that are filled with water. They should stay there for about a week. “That is as a precaution, to make sure that nothing happens to such a battery.”
These immersion tanks have been requested by the fire brigade, because batteries of electric cars can often catch fire again during extinguishing. The only way to be sure they won’t re-ignite spontaneously is to submerge them for an extended period of time. Sometimes that can take days or weeks.
The large immersion tanks were brought to the Walibi site by a salvage company. The burnt-down cars are hauled in there, after which the containers are stored elsewhere.
The fire brigade quickly had the fire under control and the fire was quickly extinguished. “As a result, we were able to prevent the fire from spreading to even more cars or to the surrounding nature,” said the fire service spokesperson.
Source: 06-07-2023
Authors: Angelique Rondhuis, Thomas van der Kolk
