On a sad winter's morning, I walked out to hop on my Yamaha Aerox only to find half a link from the chain that I used to keep it safe—much good that did. It's a heartbreaking experience to have your motorcycle taken from you. So, when I saw a video of a temporary motorcycle parking lot up in flames, I felt secondhand pain for my two-wheeled brethren.
As you'll see from the video below, it was no small fire. An entire parking lot in Chongqing, southwest China, went up in flames last Wednesday. The fire was spilling out of every inch of the ground floor, while smoke engulfed the building above, leaving bystanders to watch helplessly. Just looking at the size of the enormity of the fire, it's hard to imagine that any motorcycles survived.
It's still unknown what started the blaze, which took the local fire department about 21 minutes to extinguish; however, the cause is under investigation. The video shows bystanders covering their mouths and others fleeing the parking lot, but thankfully, no casualties have been reported.
Several things could have started the fire; it's a building full of internal combustion engines, after all. But electric motorcycles are more popular in China—in terms of sales—than in any other country, with more than 54 million electric two-wheeled vehicles sold in 2023. Some of these are the same vehicles that have been banned by building owners in the US due to instances of them starting fires.
Check out the video below and see the blaze for yourself.
Do you have any stories about similar situations? Or even better, if you've got some tips to ensure that your garage doesn't go up in flames due to a motorcycle-related mishap let us know in the comments, and help keep the RideApart community safe.
