Left Behind in Cars, Exploding in the Heat: Temperatures Exceed 80°C in Just 2 Hours

[Anchor]

With the scorching heatwaves these days, cars parked outside quickly turn into boiling saunas. Leaving items like auxiliary batteries or lighters inside by mistake can lead to major fires.

Reporter Kwon Min-kyu put this to the test.

[Reporter]

A large hole is blown through the leather of the passenger seat, and the inside of the seat is charred black.

On the afternoon of June 15, a battery exposed to high heat and sunlight suddenly exploded inside a car parked at an elementary school in Gukwu-dong, Daegu.

In Mokpo in 2023, a lighter left inside a vehicle exploded, leaving a passenger with second-degree burns.

Vehicle fires during the summer have increased every year, recording 1,354 cases last year, with already over 900 cases this year.

We conducted an experiment to see just how quickly the interior of a car heats up in the summer.

At 1:00 PM, when the sunlight is hottest, the interior temperature of the car, which was already nearing 40°C (104°F), soared past 80°C (176°F) in just two hours.

The thermometer installed inside the car stopped working from the heat, and a candle placed next to it melted away.

The current time is 4:00 PM.

Measuring the temperature of the dashboard right now, it reads nearly 80°C (176°F).

In weather like this, leaving lighters or auxiliary batteries inside a car would make it stranger if they did not explode.

Vehicles with window tinting get just as hot.

[Kim Hyo-in / Senior Researcher, Korea Transportation Safety Authority: Because outside temperatures are high in the summer, we find that fires occur about 10% to 20% more frequently. Lighters and butane gas canisters with the potential for explosion should not be left unattended (inside cars).]

Experts advise that drivers should park so that the rear windshield, which has a narrow surface area and a large reflection angle, faces the sun to at least mitigate the temperature rise.

When parking for a long time, it is recommended to leave the windows open by 1 to 2 centimeters or install a sunshade.

(Video Report: Seol Chi-hwan | Video Editing: Kim Jong-tae | Design: Lee Ga-jin)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.