A freak accident took place inside a container truck travelling on the Mumbai-Agra highway as it caught on fire during the journey. The truck caught on fire around the city of Nashik on the road during the travel. The truck was transporting multiple electric scooters. The scooters also caught fire and they were all completely burnt to a crisp. Fortunately, according to official sources, there were neither any injuries nor any casualties.
The incident took place in the evening on Tuesday at around 4:15 PM in a place called Pathardi Phata right outside a local hotel. According to official sources, the fire got quite big and it took over an hour for the blaze to subside after the local fire stations were alerted. Firemen rushed to the scene and were able to create a buffer zone swiftly so that no people would be too close to be harmed and then took care of the fire.
Out of the forty electric scooters being transported, twenty of them have been damaged beyond repair and will be a loss for the manufacturers. It is likely the other twenty will also not be listed for sale and will be handed over to the government so that they can commence their necessary investigations as the cause of fire is yet to be known.
For a regular vehicle that uses petrol, diesel, or compressed natural gas, it is pretty straightforward to get them to bay if they catch on fire. The vehicle in blaze needs to be hosed with liters of water. Which is what people and fire fighters have been doing for centuries.
However, if an electric vehicle catches on fire, which seems to be happening more often that naught, the method to subside the flames becomes a bit more difficult. This is due to the fact the battery of electric vehicles is made with lithium ions. When they catch fire, and water is poured on them, a chemical reaction in the battery takes place releasing pressurized hydrogen which is extremely flammable. Therefore, if you ever come across an electric vehicle on flames the last thing going through your mind is dumping some water on to it.
There seems to be a huge number of cases of random blazes happening all around the country and the government and people together should band up and call for more safer vehicles. With electric vehicles being the new fad around the country, Indian manufacturers have to figure out what to do if they are to rule the world industry.
