Power firm claims car was charging during fire incident:Smart meter data shows regular EV charging from 11 pm to 3 am

Amid questions over the cause of the fire at the Pugalia family’s house in Brajeshwari Annex, three teams from the power company, the electrical safety department, and the car manufacturer reached the spot on Friday to investigate. It may be noted that eight members of businessman Manoj Pugalia’s family were burnt alive in the fire that broke out on Wednesday. The power company claims that smart meter load patterns show the electric vehicle (EV) at the house was regularly charged from 11 pm to 3 am, when it would stop automatically. In several instances, charging resumed about 15 minutes after the auto cut. On the day of the incident (March 18), charging restarted after the auto cut and high load was recorded till around 3:45 am, according to meter data. Meanwhile, experts from the EV company and the electrical safety department also collected evidence during their inspection. One rim damaged; possible blast point The electrical safety team said details related to connection, wiring and other aspects have been collected, but no firm conclusion can be drawn yet. A report will be submitted soon. During inspection, it was found that one rim of the car was completely damaged. Despite the tyres being burnt, three rims remained intact. It is suspected that the EV battery may have exploded at that point. Data recorded every 15 minutes Power company DE DK Tiwari said that smart meters record data for every connection at 15-minute intervals. Analysis of the last 15 days shows that the house’s normal load was 3–4 kilowatts, which rose to 7 kilowatts around 11 pm during charging. Even after the fire broke out, the electricity supply in the entire neighbourhood remained intact. Power was switched off at around 4:20 am after information was received. Officials said that if there had been a fault in the power pole, the entire locality would have lost electricity. Engineers from Mumbai and Delhi inspected the site Company engineers inspected the car for one and a half hours and made videos. Meanwhile, the car company had sent two technical officers from Delhi and Mumbai. People from Indore were also with them. According to TI Manish Lodha, they inspected for one and a half hours and did videography. They started the inspection from the bonnet of the car. The charger located in the front part of the car was burnt to ashes. The upper covers of the cables were burnt, and only the metal wires remained. After this, they checked the battery system, AC, and cooling system. The team took some samples with them.