hankyoreh

Police relocate what remains of the chassis of the electric vehicle that erupted into flames in the underground parking garage of an apartment in Incheon’s Seo District following their joint forensic analysis on Aug. 5, 2024. (Yonhap)

Earlier this year, a banner was hung at an apartment building in Anyang announcing a ban on electric vehicles in its underground parking garage. This came after around 62% of residents approved the measure in a vote, citing concerns about the vehicles presenting a fire hazard.

The apartment in question subsequently positioned all nine of its EV charging spaces aboveground. In a telephone interview with the Hankyoreh on Tuesday, a staffer at the apartment’s management office explained, “There has been a lot of concern about EVs being prone to fires, and many people have insisted that they should be banned from the parking garage.”

“The underground levels are where all the shared plumbing and water supply infrastructure are, so they’re in a position to cause bigger problems if a fire occurs,” they added.

Opposition to underground parking of EVs has been growing in the wake of a fire that occurred on Aug. 1 in Incheon’s Cheongna neighborhood. Recently, a restaurant complex in Seoul’s Yeouido area banned EVs from its parking tower.

A manager of the parking facility explained, “We banned the parking of EVs because of the fire risk they present.”

“There have actually been cases of growing disputes with customers due to the ban on EV parking,” they also said.

A mixed-used office and residential building in Seoul’s Sinchon area had a message on its parking tower wall that read, “Electric vehicles are prohibited from parking in the tower. Please park at ground level.”

Some apartment complexes permit EVs to enter their parking facilities but ban the use of chargers there.

An apartment complex in Namyangju has prohibited the use of its underground EV charging stations since Aug. 1, citing the fire risk. The complex in question currently has a total of 14 EV charging stations installed underground.

Another apartment in Busan has cut off electricity supplies to EV chargers ever since a fire that occurred while an EV was charging in April 2023. An EV owner living in the complex said, “It’s unfair that they still won’t let us charge there even after an investigation found that the issue was a defective battery in the vehicle, rather than a charger issue.”

As similar measures spread across the country, there’s been growing tension between residents in various areas. A post on an online forum claimed that an EV owner became involved in a shouting match with other residents in their apartment complex during a debate about underground parking for EVs in the wake of the fire in Incheon. 

At the same time, some say that the larger problem is that sprinklers were not activated. 

Incheon’s fire authorities found in their internal investigation into the Cheongna EV fire that the parking garage’s sprinklers had not turned on. The authorities continue to look into why they did not activate when the car went up in flames. The Incheon Seobu Police Station has obtained testimony that the apartment parking garage’s sprinkler system did not activate at the time of the fire and is carrying out relevant investigations. 

“The way I see it, if the sprinklers had worked as they were supposed to, then the fire wouldn’t have spread as fast as it did,” commented an EV owner who has been following the news about the fire in Incheon. “It’s not right to put the blame for everything on electric cars.”

By Lee Seung-wook, staff reporter; Kim Yeong-dong, Busan correspondent

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