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2017 BMW I3 — UNKNOWN OR OTHER

fire · 1990857 · 2024-05-11

Vehicle

Make
BMW
Model
I3
Year
2017
Manufacturer
BMW of North America, LLC
Component
UNKNOWN OR OTHER

Severity

Deaths
0
Injured
0
Fire
Yes
Crash
No
Police report
No
Medical attention
No
Vehicle towed
No

Narrative

A BMW i3 caught fire in our garage. Maintenance on the car had been performed the day prior and it was found that the mechanic left the oil cap off. It took less than 7 minutes from the time the car started smoking to the point where the entire home was engulfed in flames. The fire department was onsite a couple of minutes after the car started smoking. It took 4 fire departments approximately 2 hours to extinguish this fire. A car should not be designed in a way in which an oil cap can cause the complete destruction of a home that quickly putting people’s lives at risk. The car was picked up by Geico, so we do not know if it is still available for investigation, but the fire investigators did confirm the cause was the missing oil cap. At this time, ourselves and three of our neighbors are unable to return to their homes. We are looking at least another year before being able to return. We lost everything in our home along with the car. This included many items which can never be replaced. This BMW i3 put ourselves, the neighbors and the multitude of firefighters this took to put this fire out lives at risk.

Source

Authoritative
NHTSA ODI Flat-File Downloads
ODI Number
11588266
Machine
JSON-LD · Markdown