34 replies to this topic

[mab01uk]

Interesting video....

The Luton Airport Fire - DIESEL or a HYBRID? You decide.
"The entire world wants to know... What caused the fire? In this video we'll be looking at the evidence we have so far and asking some key questions.
In this absolutely 100% serious video we are diving into the murky world of Land Rover Recalls, bad PR, over heating DPF filters, poor maintenance, lithium batteries and big fat Range Rovers.
We're also looking in more detail at the ISOLATED Range Rover Evoque fires (that weren't so isolated), learning a bit about how diesel catches fire and taking a look at a number of different Jaguar Land Rover products."

 

Edited by mab01uk, 17 October 2023 - 12:24 PM.

[Deeppockets]

IMHO the question is not what started the fire (there will always be car fires) but rather what happened after a fire started.  There is clearly a failing regarding the lack of fire suppression sprinklers, but once the fire caught did the presence of lithium batteries in hybrid and EV cars cause an unmanageable fire through thermal runaway which destroyed the car park?

[MatthewsDad]

There was a similar car park fire in Liverpool some time ago which completely destroyed the car park and around 1,000 vehicles. I guess it didn't make the news like the Luton fire as it was up north but it was certainly as bad.

I found this report from 2020 which suggested that the lessons from the Liverpool fire hadn't been learnt and that there was a risk of a similar incident occurring. Fast forward to 2023!

www.newcivilengineer.com%2Flatest%2Flessons-of-liverpool-car-park-blaze-have-not-been-learnt-safety-body-warns-16-10-2020

I don't want to think about a similar fire in a city centre underneath a tall building.

[Deeppockets]

With the Luton ~1500 cars and a multistorey car park destroyed, an airport closed for most of a day, 125+ flights cancelled and others significantly delayed there will be large compensation claims from the airlines and individuals for direct and consequential losses. I suspect the insurers have woken up to the increasing risks associated with car fires as the number of lithium celled cars grow.

It will the the underwriters who drive the required changes to the safety standards and regs. It seems most other bodies are sleepwalking or wilfully blind to their increasing lethal risks wrt fire scenarios.

[DeadSquare]

I have watched his video twice, and maybe I'm misunderstanding what he meant to say,

 

BUT,

 

How does a parked car, decide that it would be a good time to heat the particulate filter, and how does it set about getting things really hot ?

[Deeppockets]

From the video evidence the car was not parked. It is located in the roadway between the parked cars with its lights on, suggesting that it was being driven up to the point the car was stopped due to the fire.

 

There is no evidence to indicate whether the car had just arrived (with hot components) or had just been started to leave (with potential latent fault such as fuel leak, electrical component damage or degradation).

 

While it is very bad that the car caught fire (and there seems to be an emerging pattern regarding JLR products for this) for me it is very, very bad that the fire could not be contained and the subsequent fire had such a extreme impact.  If the next car park fire is in an underground car park the contained fire intensity and toxic fumes are likely to have a far worse outcome.

[DeadSquare]

Well that just shows how good a witness I'd be.

 

I had made up my mind that the owners had parked and walked off, and didn't notice how the vehicles were positioned around it.

[Lplus]

According to the DVLA, E10EFL is a 2014 diesel range rover sport with an emissions of 169gm/km.  That is the quoted emissions for a 2014 hybrid RR sport as advertised on autotrader.  The plain diesel has an emissions of around 230gm/km.

[coopertaz]

With the Luton ~1500 cars and a multistorey car park destroyed, an airport closed for most of a day, 125+ flights cancelled and others significantly delayed there will be large compensation claims from the airlines and individuals for direct and consequential losses. I suspect the insurers have woken up to the increasing risks associated with car fires as the number of lithium celled cars grow.

It will the the underwriters who drive the required changes to the safety standards and regs. It seems most other bodies are sleepwalking or wilfully blind to their increasing lethal risks wrt fire scenariosthis is

this is why they will never reveal if it was a hybrid

[coopertaz]

According to the DVLA, E10EFL is a 2014 diesel range rover sport with an emissions of 169gm/km.  That is the quoted emissions for a 2014 hybrid RR sport as advertised on autotrader.  The plain diesel has an emissions of around 230gm/km.

how was the reg. number obtained?

[mab01uk]

"Car park spaces should become wider to avoid electric vehicle (EV) fires spreading to other cars and buildings, according to new guidelines proposed to ministers. The gap between parked cars should be increased to between 90cm and 1.2m in indoor and multi-story car parks to allow firefighters to reach burning vehicles faster and reduce the spread of fire, a July report by consultancy firm Arup says."
https://www.thisismo...sters-told.html

 

[stuart bowes]

brilliant so now packed car parks on busy days will have even fewer spaces to hunt for 

 

honestly it's not surprising people just order everything online now, the highstreet is doomed

[Bobbins]

Don't you just love the human mind ... a Range Rover catches fire and causes damage to a car park, but EVs and lithium batteries are apparently the problem. Absolutely nothing to do with diesel particulate filters and the standard method of running extremely hot to burn off the particles (I made that bit up but it might have been a factor).

 

Clearly it's usually a good idea to leave accident investigation to .... accident investigators.

[PoolGuy]

I used to play around with RC helis, the batteries had to be put in a fire resistant bag when charging.

[Gaz66]

Clearly it's usually a good idea to leave accident investigation to .... accident investigators.

Why, when there's a perfectly good Mini forum here to to sort it! 😁😁
A few of us recognise a good bandwagon when we see one 👍