I have noticed three or four car fires in the last month. The first the fire brigade posted about, the second I passed as it was being loaded into a tow truck, the third was in the Glen of the Downs, and the fourth was on a rural road in Wicklow. What’s the story? Are these being formally recorded? Are there any trends in makes or models? Petrol, diesel, hybrid, or full electric? NB, Co Wicklow
The fact that you’ve come across four car fires in the past month is definitely an interesting quirk of statistics, but as in so many cases, anecdote is not the same as evidence.
Generally, Irish fire brigades respond to about 2,300-2,500 vehicle fires each year. Given that there are about two million cars on the road, that means that on average there’s a 1 per cent chance of any car catching fire in any given year, and it means that there will be, statistically speaking, as many as 50 car fires per week.
That sounds like a lot (although the 1 per cent figure is really the more indicative one here), but actually fire brigades report that many of these call-outs turn out to be minor incidents, or are quickly extinguished, rather than turning into dramatic conflagrations.
As for trends in makes or models – no, is the short answer. There are a number of potential causes for car fires, and according to the US Fire Administration, “design flaws” account for only 1 per cent of all fires.
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The two leading causes of vehicle fires, according to the US Fire Administration, are accidents and poor maintenance. Essentially, these are actually down to the same reason, which can be simply described as flammable substances coming into contact with heat. These flammable substances can be a poorly maintained air filter getting too hot and igniting its paper elements; it can be loose or frayed electrical wiring causing sparks that ignite fuel vapour; or it can be split or broken fuel or oil lines dripping flammable fluid on to a hot metal component.
Obviously, carmakers are aware of these potential threats and try to engineer their cars to withstand both impacts and poor maintenance, but given the amount of flammable material in a car – from liquid fuels and oils to seat and upholstery material – it’s no surprise that eventually, something’s going to catch light.
It’s why, in the event of a collision, you should always – assuming you can – move away from the car, as there could be fires getting started in hard-to-spot areas, and when they take hold, they spread frighteningly quickly.
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Electric car batteries add another layer of potential flammability to this equation, although they’re not the problem child that you might think. Yes, it’s true that a lithium-ion battery, if it’s damaged and experiences “thermal runaway”, can lead to a complex and dangerous fire, complete with toxic smoke, which is very difficult to extinguish.
The best methods to extinguish such fires are either to dunk the entire car into a deep container of water (not always easy), cover the car with a heavy quartz-impregnated cloth, or flood the battery directly with water. Even so, battery fires can flare up again some time after they’ve been thought to be extinguished. Battery chemistry plays a part.
Even so, electric car fires are actually pretty rare. It’s estimated that EVs come third – behind hybrids in first place and petrol-powered cars in second place – when it comes to the number of vehicle fires, although that may well change as electric models become more popular.
Smoking in cars is also a problem (yes, people still do that), as are deliberate arson (such as car thieves setting a stolen car on fire). According to the Swedish civil defence and resilience agency, 29 EVs and 52 hybrids caught fire in Sweden between 2018-2022. The average number of fires each year involving electric vehicles in Sweden stands at 16, a figure grouping hybrids and full-battery EVs together. In total, about 3,400 passenger vehicles catch fire each year in Sweden, which means that just 0.4 per cent of all passenger vehicle fires there annually involve an electric or electrified car.
Insurers, too, see electric cars as being relatively low-risk for fires. According to AXA: “The risk of fires is fortunately low for cars, irrespective of whether they are powered by petrol or electricity. Statistics show that only five out of 10,000 cars fall victim to fire.”
Analysis by car safety and security experts at Thatcham Laboratories in the UK found that the average percentage of fire claims per year for an EV is just 0.001 per cent. This is far lower than the 0.007 per cent recorded for petrol vehicles and 0.011 per cent for diesel vehicles.
Again, these numbers may well change in line with the increased popularity of electric cars on our roads, but for now it seems that car fires, although not exactly a rare event, are generally unlikely in a statistical sense. It’s just a statistical oddity that you came across four in one week.
