A sightseeing tour company in San Diego was forced to put the brakes on rentals after about 30 of its vehicles, including several powered by lithium-ion batteries, went up in flames Thursday night, officials said.

Firefighters responded to the fire at GoCar Tours at 9:22 p.m., according to San Diego Fire Rescue Department spokeswoman Mónica Muñoz. He said they quickly extinguished the fire behind a one-story commercial building and called the hazmat team.

Battalion Chief Robert Rezende, an expert on lithium-ion battery fires and the area’s first expert, said the team helped move the remains of the battery-powered GoCars to a safe area in the parking lot so they could be properly removed by the hazmat contractor. alternative energy emergency response coordinator.

Lithium-ion battery fires, extremely dangerous Because they emit dangerous gases and can burn for hours or even days.

Rezende said that in this case, the fire was quickly extinguished and it was unclear whether the batteries were damaged.

Owner Chris Boone GoCar Tours San DiegoHe said that 6 electric vehicles were among those destroyed.

“I couldn’t sleep, it was so scary,” she said. “We lost 95 percent of our cars in the fire.”

Although the cause of the fire has not yet been determined, Battalion Chief Chad Willenberg He told NBC 7 On Thursday night we were told this could be due to overcharging the batteries. But none of the lithium-ion batteries caught fire, Boone said.

The fire was started by gasoline-powered vehicles and then spread to electric vehicles, Rezende told The Times on Friday.

“The requirements for electric vehicle safety standards are very, very high,” he said. “Electric vehicles are statistically less likely to spontaneously ignite than internal combustion engine vehicles.”

It’s also possible, he said, that one of the electric batteries was damaged in a collision that the customer didn’t report, and that the battery then failed, causing the fire. Because the fire is considered an accident, the Fire Department will not investigate the incident further and it will be up to the company’s insurance company to determine the cause.

Boone said he considered hiring an investigator but wasn’t sure it would be financially feasible. He estimated the fire caused $350,000 in damage and said he feared insurance would not cover those costs because the fire occurred in a parking lot, not inside a building.

He first brought the three-wheelers to San Diego in 2005 and said they were a huge success. He said tourists like to use mini vehicles powered by 49cc scooter engines to explore the city.

On Friday, he went to Las Vegas to pick up an additional vehicle from another GoCar Tours site. He hopes to use these tools to fulfill existing San Diego reservations and “keep the smiles on our customers’ faces.” However, it cannot accept new reservations for now.