80 Cars Towed After West Coast Fire – Latest Updates and Details

About 50 of the 80 cars that had to be towed after the West Coast fire were removed in the 20s.

Monday morning fire broke out in a car in the car park at the Vestkanten shopping center in Loddefjord. Nine hours later, there is still full activity in the part of the plant where the fire was.

The owners of the 80 cars parked there were told that their cars do not need to be started. Instead, they had to contact their insurance companies, who would arrange for the cars to be towed and delivered to places where they could be cleaned.

“Don’t start the car”

“Don’t start your car, it could be wrecked!! it was written on notes which was posted on the cars.

– The cars that have been left there, more or less, have been in a rather smoky environment. They must be collected by tow trucks and cleaned. All car owners must order themselves towed through their insurance company, said police operations manager Tore-André Brakstad to BT.

When BT were on the scene at 8pm on Monday evening, both tow trucks and car transporters drove away with cars from the car park. There were still about 30 cars left inside the facility.

– You have lost account

– All our cars are out and running, and we take the cars out continuously, says Scandinavian driver Endre Jensen.

He does not know how many tow trucks took part in the operation, or how many cars they took out.

– But there is a lot. I’ve lost count, he says.

Due to the low roof height, smaller tow trucks have to be placed down the stairs, which then pull the cars up to the driveway, where they can be loaded onto the tow trucks.

Crews from Bergen Bilhjelp were also working when BT was on site.

Soot can smell like fire

Arne Voll, communications manager at Gjensidige, says the main reason you shouldn’t start the car after being close to a fire is the risk of soot particles being drawn into the air conditioner.

– Then it can settle quickly in the car, and it will smell like fire for a long time. Therefore, it is advisable to take it to a workshop, before further damage occurs. They can clean the car and the particulate filter, he says.

Voll does not know how many of the cars are insured in Gjensidige, but he says that the company has about 25 percent market share.

– I would like to believe that it is shown here. We have received several questions from customers, he says.

– Almost no more than two days

Media manager Ole Irgens in Tryg also says that the cars should be cleaned before use.

– We have collected about ten cars that are insured by us. They were towed to a car cleaning company, he says.

– When will customers get their cars back?

– I’ll be surprised if it takes more than a day or two. But since this is going on with the comprehensive insurance, everyone can rent a car in the meantime.

– Not near the fire ​​​​Sola

Both Voll and Irgens are happy that things seem to have gone so well on the West Coast. They both remember the fire in the car park in Sola in 2020where hundreds of cars were destroyed.

– I think this will go very well. There are many injuries, says Voll, who praises the efforts of the fire department.

Irgens says that people who have been on the scene report that many cars appear to have been damaged, with only a small amount of cargo.

Scandinavian driver Endre Jensen was also at Sola and contributed to his recovery there.

– It was much bigger. This is not close. We then spent two weeks emptying the car park. The building was in danger of collapsing, so the cars had to be towed out to us by remote-controlled robots, he says.