Electric car gutted by fire in Kerikeri

A battery fire in an electric car gutted the vehicle and spread into roadside vegetation near Kerikeri yesterday.

The blaze started just after 2pm yesterday on Rangitane Rd, just north of town.

It appeared the driver of the compact electric vehicle managed to pull off the road and onto a driveway before the blaze fully took hold.

The flames then spread through about 20m of roadside grass and into a hedgerow.

The vegetation fire was quickly extinguished by volunteers from the Kerikeri Fire Brigade.
Fire chief Les Wasson said it appeared the fire had started from a battery which had been placed on the back seat, not the car's lithium batteries.

A Kerikeri volunteer firefighter cools the batteries of an electric car which caught fire at Rangitane, near Kerikeri, on Tuesday. Photo / Peter de Graaf

The cause was not clear but it was possible the battery had short-circuited or overheated.
However, once the fire spread to the engine bay the car's lithium batteries had become very hot.

Firefighters spent almost two hours at the scene hosing down the batteries in a bid to cool them down, only returning to the station around 4.30pm.