A fire in an electric car in a garage in Santander forces the evacuation of a building, leaving its residents without homes.

Neighbors of a building on Leopoldo Pardo Street in Santander were forced to spend the night outside their homes after a fire broke out on Thursday morning in a garage used by the Guppy mobility company.

The possibility of structural damage led to continued evacuation and the implementation of preventive bracing measures.

Two cars were on fire when firefighters arrived

The fire produced a massive column of black smoke visible from various parts of the city, forcing the students at Arce Bodega school, located next to the building, to evacuate as a precaution as well.

Although the flames were extinguished during the morning, subsequent inspections extended the response time. As of now, it has not been officially determined what caused the fire, nor has it been confirmed whether the origin was in the battery or charging system of an electric vehicle.

The emergency service 112 received the alert at 8:40 a.m. on Thursday, October 8. When firefighters arrived around 9:00 a.m., they found two cars on fire inside the facility located at the ground floor of number 7 on Leopoldo Pardo Street, in the Castilla-Hermida area.

The garage is used to park and charge electric vehicles from Guppy, a car-sharing company. The intensity of the fire and the amount of smoke forced safety measures to be taken for the residents of a five-story building with ten apartments.

The neighbors were initially confined and later evacuated. Normal access for students to Arce Bodega school, whose courtyard faces the affected building, was also temporarily restricted.

According to information from Europa Press, firefighters deployed three tankers, two light vehicles, and one pump truck, with a total of 20 personnel. The firefighting efforts lasted until around 11:00 a.m. After that, the teams continued with cooling, ventilation, and inspections of nearby areas to ensure the fire had not spread.

Following an inspection by the municipal architect, residents were informed that they should stay outside their homes as a precaution against possible structural damage.

Some neighbors stayed at relatives’ homes, while others had to spend the night at the Princesa Letizia Shelter located in Candina. Firefighters carried out stabilization work on the building as a preventive measure.

The incident also had an impact on the city’s emergency planning: the drill for a hazardous materials accident scheduled for Thursday night in the La Albericia tunnel had to be postponed because firefighters needed to continue dealing with the aftermath of the fire.

These subsequent actions show that authorities deemed it necessary to maintain precautions after extinguishing the flames. The information released does not allow determination of the exact extent of potential damage nor confirmation that the building’s overall structure was compromised.

No injuries were reported directly as a result of the fire. However, an elderly neighbor with limited mobility was taken to Marqués de Valdecilla University Hospital as a precaution.

The evacuation took place while emergency teams worked to control the flames and reduce the smoke accumulated in the building. Residents were initially taken care of at the nearby Tabacalera civic center, waiting to return to their homes.

The priority for emergency services was to extinguish the fire, protect the residents, and assess the condition of the building before allowing them to return.

Did an electric car explode during charging? The investigation will determine the cause of the fire.

Initial reports suggested the fire might have started in an electric vehicle that was charging in the garage. Local police sources cited by Europa Press mentioned this possibility, though authorities urged waiting for a technical report before determining a definitive cause.

It is therefore important to distinguish between facts and hypotheses. It is documented that two cars were on fire when the firefighters arrived, and that the fire occurred in a garage where electric vehicles were charging. However, it has not been confirmed that a car exploded, that the battery was responsible for the fire, or that the fire started in the charger.

The specific model of vehicle that may have started the fire has not been officially identified either. Since Guppy operates a fleet of electric cars, it is not possible to attribute the incident to a particular brand or model.

The cause of the fire remains unclarified. The firefighters’ technical report will need to determine where the fire started and what factor may have triggered it, before attributing it to an electrical fault, battery issue, charger problem, or some other cause.

This case also highlights the complexity of dealing with fires in enclosed garages, where smoke can spread to the apartments above and complicate firefighting efforts. In Santander, the operation did not end with the flames being extinguished: inspections and structural support required the building to remain evacuated overnight.

For now, the conclusion is that the fire affected two vehicles, forced residents to evacuate, and required subsequent preventive actions. The possible connection to the load in an electric car remains a line of investigation, not a confirmed cause.