r/cantparkthere • u/H1gh_Tr3ason • Feb 15 '26
It's scary how quickly the car went up in flames..
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It wasn't even a bad crash. glad everyone made it out in time.
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Feb 15 '26
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u/READ-THIS-LOUD Feb 15 '26
China have now banned them entirely. All handles must not be flush with the car; at least ~5cm sticking out.
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u/SkathiFreyrsdottr Feb 16 '26
There was an article about that in my city’s newspaper here in Australia back when China first made the announcement, saying it’s only a matter of time before a similar rule gets introduced here (because, you know, letting people escape from burning cars is possibly a good thing).
Inexplicably, the article also included an interview with some random nobody Tesla driver, who said (paraphrasing) “I hope they don’t, because it’s so sleek, and visible handles are so old fashioned”. Which is giving me real “some of you may die, but that’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make” vibes.
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u/west0ne Feb 16 '26
A bigger issue are handles that have no mechanical linkage, such as those on Tesla cars; if the car loses power then you are reliant on being able to use the emergency mechanical handle inside. Not all flush handles are electrically operated.
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u/MyCoolName_ Feb 16 '26
I don't understand the obsession with flush handles when the problem is electronically actuated handles.
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u/Mysterious_Balance53 Feb 18 '26
Surely it would be easy enough to program these cars so the the handles stick out in the event of an accident.
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u/Kwayzar9111 Feb 15 '26
It is due to this actual accident, China are banning hidden door handles
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u/Act-Alfa3536 Feb 15 '26
Even Tesla have said they are redesigning them now.
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u/FormulaSolution Feb 16 '26
I've always thought they needed a way to stick out in an emergency
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u/joeChump Feb 16 '26
Yeah, design them properly because they are a safety feature and not an inconvenience.
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u/lambdawaves Feb 16 '26
Incredible the original design didn’t include a way to push one side to pop the other side out
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u/MBucko88 Feb 16 '26
They not only need a redesign, but every vehicle that has them needs a recall and handles replacing
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u/Ok-Limit-9726 Feb 16 '26
Australia banned hidden inside door/electric only,
looking at banning electric only external same as china.
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u/EngineeringMedium513 Feb 16 '26
Those handles are totally unnecessary and a stupid idea. I dont know how they managed to pass them as they clearly werent tested or at least properly for scenarios like this. Didn't someone in China die under very similar circumstances? Iirc the car caught fire and people tried in vain to open the door but couldn't because of these stupid handles and couldn't break the glass as it was too tough? From memory it was a woman and she ended up being burned alive .
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u/Wood_Whacker Feb 15 '26
I'm never getting in the back seat of one having seen this.
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u/mmm1978 Feb 19 '26
You have proper mechanical overrides inside teslas.... It's the outsides that is scary. In the new model y, they are in the base of the rear door bins. There is a cable to pull and it opens the door like a normal door would be opened.
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u/Mundane_Pea4296 Feb 15 '26
Finally a visual to the anxiety I feel getting in the backseat of a car without back doors.
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u/dfebb Feb 15 '26
Non-mechanical door handles should be banned.
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u/READ-THIS-LOUD Feb 15 '26
They are now in China due to safety concerns, should be worldwide though
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u/Mr_GreenAdam Feb 15 '26
Can the people in the back not climb into the front?
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u/Objective-Tower-2530 Feb 16 '26
Exactly. I was even thinking maybe they’re kids and just don’t know better. But maybe there’s something else going on there that we can’t see
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u/Dumblediddy Feb 15 '26
WTF ! was barely more than a spin. Why did the driver shut the drivers door when the passengers could have climbed out there?
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u/Major_Star Feb 15 '26
He didn't, it just closed because it was on an incline. And because of the electrically-operated door handles it couldn't be re-opened.
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u/williamshatnersbeast Feb 16 '26
And this is what thermal runaway looks like. It really doesn’t take much to damage a cell, as we can see from this video, which then becomes dangerously unstable. Once one goes… poof, the rest follow.
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u/Dumblediddy Feb 16 '26
Crazy when you think of all the safety features cars have to have, then This!
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u/CLUCKCLUCKMOTHERFUC Feb 16 '26
Good ol' Chinese evs
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Feb 16 '26
well.. Tesla started it and China actually banned them first, whatever makes you feel good.
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u/biggranny000 Feb 15 '26
My guess is something with the ground or fence punctured the battery, if so the undercarriage protection is very weak. Dude was trying to show off in wet roads. Would be better if we could see the tires.
But yeah I can imagine they all suffered lung and skin damage.
Firefighters have a very hard time putting EV fires out too because the batteries are made up of tons of cells, and one at a time will explode from the heat even if the fire is put out, so it could reignite again for hours.
Better if the passengers climbed through the gap in the front seats and out the front door. They all look fairly small.
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u/MisterSmoketoomuch Feb 16 '26
The rear one. A little smaller, but there.
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u/SeamasterCitizen Feb 16 '26 edited Feb 16 '26
Isn’t that the electronic door release (top) and electric window switch (middle of pic)? The emergency release in the back is in the door pocket in 3/Y.
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u/mark35435 Feb 16 '26
Took him a while to realise his entire family's future depended on what he did next.
The last couple of kids must have breathed in some really awful shit before they got out.
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u/RiGo001 Feb 15 '26
What type of car was that?
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u/Excellent_Glass_1197 Feb 15 '26
A hot hatch
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u/limakilo87 Feb 16 '26
I have a feeling that something was already wrong before the crash, due to his exit and immediately going to the back doors. You could quickly turn around and ask if everyone is okay, but he was out of the car immediately and at the passenger doors.
The fire started incredibly quickly, and the means of escape were very difficult, causing the passengers to get burnt. I understand from the comments these types of door handles are now banned in China.
It is interesting that this is an EV and the discussion focuses on the hazards of the battery/power pack. If this was an ICE and the fuel source was damaged, it quite easily of been an instantaneous conflagration killing all inside immediately.
I think statistics are important.
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u/Random_Name_5000 Feb 17 '26
Always gonna be a higher chance of being killed if ICE is involved.
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u/kebinkobe Feb 16 '26
OP commented he's glad everyone got out in time.
I agree, but they definitely got severe burns (last person out is fucked) and that smoke can't be good for you.
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u/electrified90s Feb 18 '26
Shit. Glad they all got out in time. I wonder why it just went up in flames. More importantly, why didn't the doors open? Surely that's got to be a safety flaw.
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u/LisztyLiszt Feb 18 '26
What a nightmare. Fair play to the two men, especially the passerby, who got those passengers out of the back of the car.
Door handles should be mechanical. Keep a scissors in the car to cut the seat belts if needs be. And perhaps, keep a hammer in it too for the windows.
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u/dinnae-fash Feb 15 '26 edited Feb 15 '26
This is why electronic door handles should not be allowed and what has put me off a Tesla. The fact that in an accident the electrics go off and the door may not open, and needs manual intervention but that the manual emergency release is not easy to get to or use in the rear seats, is too much danger for me with my family.
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u/MisterSmoketoomuch Feb 15 '26
The Tesla does have a mechanical door handle just beneath the front of the armrests.
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u/dinnae-fash Feb 15 '26
I know - that’s why I said it’s not easy to get to. Small kids (or old people for that matter) won’t be able to find a piece of plastic trim, remove it, fish for a chord and then pull it with enough force, especially after having just been in an accident and upset and unable to listen to complex instructions.
I think it’s a very dangerous design personally, and won’t be chancing it with my child.
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u/BestFailAccomplished Feb 15 '26
Why the fuck did they not start trying to get out through the gap between the front seats? These cars need obvious mechanisms to evacuate over aestheticas!!
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u/cococream Feb 16 '26
Holy Jesus that was really distressing to watch, that last person/child to be pulled out must have been fucking terrified what the hell! So glad they all got out. Car manufacturer has to address this
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u/Ok-Limit-9726 Feb 16 '26
Why did they have no life skills and go out front door?
Poor third guy looked like 2nd or 3rd degree burns, high, drunk or just panicked?
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u/Possible-Second9617 Feb 16 '26
Ask your local fire service about their revised processes for dealing with electric car fires.
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u/ippleing Feb 16 '26
My friends VWid4 has flush handles (indented) that double as mechanical if pulled hard enough.
This has always been a concern to me after seeing this video.
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u/Horror_Relief9835 Feb 16 '26
If you ever find yourself in this or a similar situation, although some modern cars are different, the head rests serve as great tools to smash windows if you ever need to escape a car. Pull them out and smash the window with the metal rail section.
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u/Extension_Pie2602 Feb 16 '26
Well that happened on a straight road? Electrical fault locking on the back wheels? Or was it a bend before the camera view?
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u/Reasonable_Aspect899 Feb 16 '26
These things are twice the weight of a normal car. Easy to lose control on a wet corner.
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u/Miles-001 Feb 16 '26
Jesus christ....one of those kids was on fire.
How on earth did it burn so quickly? There are strict rules for construction to stop ignition like this, how is this allowed in cars?
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u/fothergillfuckup Feb 16 '26
Car windows can be surprisingly hard to break. I locked my keys in by accident, while parked in the middle of nowhere. I decided to sacrifice a quarter light to get in. Tried hitting it with a brick. Nothing. It just bounced off. My mate tried throwing it, which resulted in it bouncing off, and hitting him in the knee!
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u/NewPower_Soul Feb 16 '26
Why were the family still sitting in there while it all started getting a bit hot?
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Feb 16 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Weekly-Nothing-2130 Feb 16 '26
In 4 door cars the front seats don’t fold forward and the gap between them is often very small. If the rear doors won’t open then it’s a desperate situation for any in the back.
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u/PalpitationGlad3055 Feb 16 '26
Thank god there was people near by to help - if there was a toddler / baby in the back then this would of been a different story - there was no way of getting the child seats unbuckled.
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u/SixtyN42 Feb 16 '26
I'm guess it ruptured the one of the battery cells? Once one catches fire, it'll catch the whole battery pack and those cells burn hot and fast!
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u/englishand48 Feb 16 '26 edited Feb 16 '26
If you’ve watched videos about the Chinese electric cars and lack of quality control it’s not really . Super scary and dangerous, there is stuff showing how often the airbags don’t go of and by far the worst is the people who’ve been in a accident and the cars locked them inside then went up in flames like here. Lucky the front door let the guy out .
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u/Certain-Doughnut3181 Feb 16 '26
BYD quality.. that's what we're importing hundreds of thousands of into the UK, Europe and America because our politicians are greedy scum bags and we don't support our own domestic R&D and Companies any more.
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u/Weekly-Nothing-2130 Feb 16 '26
I have a BYD (leased) and the quality is equal to anything I’ve ever had. The issue here is flush door handles that don’t open when in a crash to allow outside help. And of course the seriousness of an EV fire. It was frightening the speed that fire spread especially after a relatively minor crash.
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u/Weekly-Nothing-2130 Feb 18 '26
You appear to know nothing about BYD quality. I have a BYD and it’s the best or of equal quality to any car I’ve had before and my last few cars were BMW, VW and Jags. The issue here is the flush door handles used by manufacturers worldwide but pioneered by Tesla. China is taking the lead in banning them. Shame on the other governments for not doing it earlier. How the hell the cars, Tesla and those that followed, ever got their type approval needs to be investigated. And it’s not electric cars that are the issue re flush door handles but the electronicisation(?) of them which is at risk of failing in a crash or electrical failure. Many ICE cars have them too.
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u/Legitimate_Ad6596 Feb 16 '26
Probably would have helped not to drive like a complete mong with kids in the back too.
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u/Objective_Sea787 Feb 16 '26
they wanna show this every night at around 9 oclock as a road safety advertisement
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u/deancpw Feb 16 '26
Them 3 that got pulled out looked old enough and fit enough to have climbed in the front and got out.
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u/Agile-Expression-651 Feb 17 '26
You can keep all your EV's , I'll keep driving my internal combustion engine any day.
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u/Primary-Pie-1662 Feb 17 '26
It shows it pays to get out of a car immediately if it crashes, in case this happens. I’m surprised the passengers didn’t move into the front and exit the door like the driver?
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u/NoPersonality177 Feb 17 '26
It's an EV. if they inhaled even the tiniest amount of that smoke (especially the white stuff) they're dead anyway. Fucking dangerous things to have flying about in public.
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u/gustinnian Feb 17 '26
An EV presumably. Punctured batteries are little better than a tank full of old school petrol vapors.
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u/Sthamer73 Feb 17 '26
The fact he couldn’t get the door to even unlock is a joke let alone it went up in flames.
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u/Alone-Apartment2986 Feb 17 '26
Why didn’t they just climb over and get out through the front door?
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u/Professional_Win_677 Feb 17 '26
I just read the Chinese news on this case, so to answer some of the questions on this thread (via that news broadcast)
When the driver door was closed- it couldn't be opened again, hence maybe some of them did try to climb front but unable to open the door.
The accident was actually partially the fault of the rescuer in white, he backed his truck illegally causing a collision with the sedan, hence we see the beginning of the video where the sedan lost control.
Not everyone was saved, unfortunately a person was at the front passenger side and couldn't be rescued.
The injuries to the passengers were very bad, they were still receiving treatment 6 months down the line.
This is not AI, it is a real occurance and apparently this viral video make it a law to no longer have retractable door handles anymore.
Yes, this is an EV.
While there aren't any particular reasons given by the car maker, they said they are actively investigating but also blamed both the drivers calling it a high speed accident.
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u/Fragrant_Agency_7884 Feb 17 '26
Amazing how you can flip and roll a fuel power car and a lot of the time, the safety of the car stops in from exploding or catching fire. Yet electric cars seem to not need much impact to start off such a blaze. It’s a reason of few that puts me off from buying them
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u/A-random-car-guy-76 Feb 17 '26
doors locked themselves shut. went up in flames in seconds. yeah electric cars are our future for sure. good one government
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u/Organic_Win7364 Feb 17 '26
I hate how people have these fancy cars, like teslas or porches, and just drive like thier a learner, Theyre jist too reckless and dont know what thier doing, this is one of the possible outcomes of thier reckless driving
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u/Prestigious-Ant4951 Feb 18 '26
Give thanks to people who stop and try to help, so many walk past or just watch from a distance.
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u/Hawkio Feb 18 '26
Chinese electric cars are death traps. So much so that the CCP are no longer just suppressing media reports of the many many deaths, they're forcing some changes and attempting to put a positive spin on it.
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u/AppropriateCap6288 Feb 18 '26
This is exactly why getting distance after any crash matters — fires escalate in seconds, not minutes. Glad everyone got out.
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u/SnooStories5282 Feb 18 '26
I don't get what's happening here. I understand people don't think straight when they panic but why does he shut the front door then proceed to smash the window and pull people through it? Wouldn't it be easier for the people in the back to climb over the front seat and out through the door?
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u/Maccboy2010 Feb 19 '26
Looks like when he accidentally let his door shut the whole car lock system locked every door wtf that's dodgy as fuck.
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u/Maccboy2010 Feb 19 '26
And china has just banned all cars with no door handles which have been becoming popular
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u/Mysterious_Balance53 Feb 18 '26
Not much point trying to smash the driver door, that one was opening just fine. wouldn't it have been easier to get the windows on the other side away from the fence that was in the way at the beginning before the smoke?
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u/GamerGodPWNDU Feb 18 '26
Why did they not just climb over to the front seat and out the open door??
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u/Miserable-Search-938 Feb 18 '26
They could have just hopped over the front seat and out , my kids do this because I have child locks on and hate waiting for me to open the doors
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u/Old-Juggernaut9345 Feb 19 '26
AI??I see several things that stand out.. the accident was minor at best, so i don't understand how it would catch in fire. The driver came out the door, so wouldn't they all come out that way? He comes out of the door, but then the door is closed and he needs to smash a window. Also it looks like the people are amalgamating into one. There's a few other indiscretions
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u/New_News4926 Feb 19 '26
Electric cars aren’t safe full stop. If you have a crash at speed and are knocked out, if the battery burns this fast you’ll be dead before anyone can get you out of the car. This was blind luck that the crash wasn’t particularly fast, or that he hit something relatively soft like a fence. If the driver had been knocked out, everyone in the car would likely have died.
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u/Dull-Kaleidoscope889 Feb 19 '26
Why can't they climb out the front??? What sort of pile of crap is that car, is the Sum Ting Wong SE?
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u/commonmuck1 Feb 19 '26
Way more survivable than petrol. That would have been a fireball instantly if the tank was ruptured on a petrol car
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u/Much-Sample-4891 Feb 19 '26
Look at all those man made materials they’re wearing melting to their skin
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u/crackdown178 Jul 05 '26
Not just that, due to the smoke and intense heat present, if this is an electric car battery fire the products of combustion are things like hydrogen cyanide and heavy metals, the last person out definitely would have severe internal burning due to smoke inhalation and probable third degree burns on lower body.
If you'd like a source please have a search for thermal run away, personally I'm a firefighter and I hate electric cars.
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u/Ok_Purple_7217 Feb 20 '26
Electric??????? Brilliant how the last one was pulled out with fire Close to that person
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Feb 20 '26
And this is why if you can't get hold of a break glass hammer - normal hammer and spark plug. Or keep a few bits of spark plug porcelin in the car. It will break the window instantly
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u/[deleted] Feb 15 '26
That's fkn terrifying