'Why did our parked electric car burst into flames?'

A mother said her family was "lucky to have got out safely" after their parked electric car exploded and engulfed their house in flames.

Georgina Bayliss from Spratton, Northamptonshire, said their Mercedes EQA had been parked outside their house for several hours before the explosion.

She said her younger son had seen flames around the front of the house and thought the rest of the family and their five dogs were still inside.

Mercedes-Benz UK said it was carrying out an investigation.

Mrs Bayliss's husband Scott, 47, explained how his eldest son, James, 17, raised the alarm at 21:15 BST after he heard a loud bang and thought it was fireworks.

"The pace and ferocity at which the fire took hold and engulfed the entire car and pretty much the entire front of our house was scary beyond belief," he said.

Mrs Bayliss, 49, said: "We are lucky to have got out safely, for our house to still be standing, and to all be here in one piece.

"When we saw the flames, we grabbed the puppies, and we ran out the back door."

Her husband, son and neighbour all grabbed hosepipes to try to stop the fire spreading through their home.

James's brother Adam came running up the lane towards the house.

"The look on his face is something that will forever haunt me. He thought we were still inside," Ms Bayliss continued.

Mr Bayliss said: "This is a pretty calamitous car failure, in my view, of a prestigious brand and our concern is this could happen again and people could ultimately lose their lives."

Firefighters arrived and told the family they had been minutes away from losing their home.

The family said the car was only two years old and had not shown any sign of a fault.

It was parked on the drive at 11:30 BST on the day of the explosion three weeks ago and had not been on charge.

Mercedes-Benz UK told the BBC: "We were sorry to learn of the incident. After receiving contact from Mr Bayliss, we took it very seriously and immediately contacted his vehicle insurer to arrange to investigate and examine the vehicle.

"We received feedback today and will set up a joint inspection shortly. Until then, please understand that we cannot comment further.

"In the meantime, we have offered Mr Bayliss a loan car as a gesture of goodwill."

Neil Sadler from Northamptonshire Fire Service said: "We are not experiencing an increase in electric vehicle fires, but when they do occur, they can behave differently to other vehicle fires and require a different response.

"We continually assess the risks associated with electric vehicles, to learn and enhance our operational tactics."

In the last year, the service logged 277 fires in road vehicles, three of which were categorised as electric or hybrid.

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