Two-year-old child dies, parents seriously injured after EV battery fire in northern Taiwan

A two year old child died, and his parents were critically injured, after an electric vehicle at their front door caught fire, trapping them inside their home in Taoyuan City, Saturday.

Taoyuan City Fire Department received reports of a fire on Fengde Road, Bade District at 12:10 pm after neighbors noticed an electric motorcycle in flames outside the residence. The fire department dispatched 17 fire trucks, 5 ambulances and 52 personnel.

When firefighters arrived, the first floor of the house was on fire and flames were rapidly spreading to neighboring residences on either side.

Firefighters extinguished the fire in approximately 27 minutes, then searched the residence. The firefighters located the 28-year-old homeowner, his 24-year-old wife, and their two-year-old son, trapped in a bathroom. All three had lost vital signs.

Paramedics applied emergency resuscitation measures and rushed the three unconscious patients to hospital, but the two-year-old was later declared dead. The parents remain in a critical condition.

According to media reports, neighbors said that the residence did not have a back door. As the fire started at the front door, the occupants were unable to escape, and firefighters were unable to enter the home for rescue until the fire was extinguished.

According to the fire department’s investigation, the couple hid in the bathroom, but the bathroom door was made of plastic and quickly melted. There was no external ventilation in the bathroom, and the occupants would have succumbed to carbon monoxide and smoke inhalation injuries.

As for the cause of the fire, the electric motorcycle appears to have been attached to a charging cable coming from inside the house, but whether it was charging at the time, and what caused it to burst into flames is still under investigation.

The previous day, Friday, March 14, Firefighters in Tamsui District, New Taipei City, were called to a fire in a basement parking lot of a residential building. The fire was caused by an electric bike that burst into flames. Seven other motorcycles were destroyed, and another four were damaged, but fortunately there were no casualties.

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