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The burned out wreck of an EV which caught fire while driving in Belgium.
03 May 2023

EV caught fire while driving - no local towing service wanted to deal with the wreck

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On April 9, an electric car completely burned out on the road from Beauvechain to Jodoigne in Belgium. Not a single tow truck was available in the region.

The Belgian news site Leuven Actueel writes in a recent article about the difficulty the fire services and the city had in finding a tow truck that would deal with the wreck of the burned out EV.

On the night to Sunday, an electric car, a BMW ix3, caught fire while driving highway N240. The vehicle was  completely burned out, and fortunately there were no injuries.

The car was left to burn out on the road due to the heat development in the fire. The road was completely closed for a time while the city dealt with the situation.

Several towing services were called, but none wanted to go and remove the wreck. Finally, a tow service from Korbeek-Dijle was called, which immediately went to the accident site.

"The mayor was called out of bed and came to the scene. The wreck had to be hoisted, but nobody wanted to go there. Eventually they ended up with us" says Tom Letellier from the towing company to the Belgian news site. 

But not even his towing company was willing to store the wreck on their own lot, due to the perceived risks of re-ignition:

"...We loaded the car and dropped it off at the fire brigade for further supervision. I was not going to take that car to our site, that is way too dangerous", says Tom Letellier.

 

The burned wreck of the EV finally being towed by a tower outside of the jurisdiction.