In recent days, a fire broke out in a parking lot in Dalian City, Liaoning Province, where 20 new energy vehicles awaiting delivery were burned. The cause of the fire was a 74-year-old man who was annoyed by poplar fluff blocking his way, so he used a lighter to ignite the accumulated fluff on the roadside. The elderly man has now been taken into custody by law enforcement.
On May 30th, a video titled “Fire in a Parking Lot, Multiple Vehicles Reduced to Skeletons” went viral on the internet. The person filming the video claimed that due to the extremely close parking distance between vehicles, multiple cars were quickly engulfed in flames.
According to Chinese media reports, a 74-year-old man ignited the accumulated poplar fluff on the roadside. Due to strong winds, the fire rapidly got out of control and spread to the cars parked in the nearby parking lot, causing severe damage to 20 new energy vehicles, with some vehicles reduced to charred skeletons.
On May 31st, the fire department and the Liaoning police responded, stating that the incident occurred in a parking lot in Ganjingzi District Dalian, where vehicles of a certain brand of new energy cars were awaiting delivery. A 74-year-old man surnamed Wang saw a large amount of poplar fluff on the road and steps, which he felt hindered his exercise walks. Therefore, he used a lighter to ignite some of the accumulated poplar fluff on the roadside. Unexpectedly, due to the strong wind that day, the fire quickly spread out of control and ignited the nearby vehicles. Ultimately, the accident resulted in the destruction of 20 vehicles, with some of them almost completely burned to a shell.
Currently, the elderly man involved in the incident is suspected of arson and has been subjected to criminal measures by the police, and the case is under further investigation.
This incident has attracted official attention on social media platforms.
A content creator and influential blogger on Weibo, known as “Self-Boat Crosser,” analyzed in a post, “Poplar fluff is very fluffy, with a three-dimensional porous structure that contains a large amount of air, causing its contact area with oxygen to expand infinitely. This means that once it catches fire, the burning reaction will accelerate instantly, and a cluster of poplar fluff can burn into ashes in about two seconds when exposed to an open flame, even exhibiting a crazy explosive spread during combustion. Furthermore, the temperature released during its combustion is extremely high, with the flame temperature of one square meter of poplar fluff reaching over 900℃ directly.
Looking back at the Dalian incident, many netizens actually have a question: even if the poplar fluff caught fire, how could it burn all 20 cars into charred skeletons at once? This brings up the special identity of the victimized vehicles in this case. These 20 vehicles were all new energy vehicles awaiting delivery.
Car enthusiasts know that if they were regular fuel-powered cars, they might not burn so severely, but for new energy vehicles, the core heart—the power battery, facing such high-temperature baking, is simply a powder keg waiting to explode.”