Tragedy in Rishon LeZion: Electric vehicle crashes into wall and ignites in parking lot

Fire and police investigators who examined security footage from an underground parking lot in Rishon LeZion, where a man in his 80s perished last night (Sunday) after his vehicle caught fire, estimate that the driver accelerated to approximately 100 km/h before crashing into a concrete wall. The Zeekr electric vehicle turned into a fireball within seconds and burned for about two hours before firefighters could extinguish the blaze.

According to a source in the Fire and Rescue Services, the fire broke out as a direct result of the high-impact collision.

"The fire certainly did not break out as a result of a failure in the electric vehicle's lithium battery," he stated.

The fire occurred on the minus-one level of a building on Achi Lehav Street in the Neve Hof neighborhood. The parking lot, shared by several buildings, filled with smoke that began to spread into the residential floors. Residents were instructed to shelter in their apartments, and power to the complex was cut off. As of this morning, three 29-story buildings remained without electricity, according to the site's maintenance company.

The driver, who was in his 80s, lived in the complex. He drove approximately 70–100 meters through the parking lot before crashing head-on into the concrete wall at the end of the facility. The driver's body was transferred to the Institute of Forensic Medicine for DNA identification. Investigators hope that an autopsy will provide answers regarding what caused him to accelerate to such high speeds within the parking structure.

Extinguishing a burning lithium battery is a complex operation that can last for many hours. Two nearby vehicles also caught fire, and dozens of other cars in the parking lot were damaged by black soot.