The incident, which originated in a company parking area, generated a dense smoke visible from several kilometers away, causing immediate alarm among the complex's workers and residents of neighboring areas.
The images and videos taken at the scene of the incident show the fierceness of the flames, which quickly spread through a significant section of a multi-story building. Given the seriousness of the situation, a massive deployment of fire trucks and police officers was activated, working in a coordinated manner to contain the fire and prevent it from reaching other production facilities of the electric vehicle manufacturer.
In an official statement issued shortly after the events, BYD reported that the fire was finally extinguished and, fortunately, no victims or personal injuries have been reported. The multinational clarified that the affected area functioned as a storage for "test vehicles and dismantled units", a detail that could explain the rapid combustion of the materials present at the site. However, the incident had an immediate impact on the financial markets, with the company's shares falling by 0.6% early in the morning.
This new incident once again highlights the safety challenges facing new energy vehicles. Emergency experts warn that fires in electric cars present critical characteristics: they are much more difficult to extinguish than combustion engine fires, tend to last longer, and, most worryingly, have a high probability of spontaneously reigniting due to the chemical composition of their batteries. Local authorities have already launched an investigation to determine the exact causes that led to the fire in the industrial heart of Shenzhen.