A car destroyed by a night fire of suspicious origin at Mas Drevon

During the night of this Saturday, May 4, 2025, a car was completely destroyed by a fire of suspect origin, in a public parking lot of Mas Drevon, at Montpellier.

It was 2:45 am, when detonations were heard, waking up the local residents located on avenue Villeneuve-d’Angoulême, in front of the house for all from Mas Drevon to Tastavin Park, opposite the Sabathé stadium, believing with two shots. It was obviously the explosion of tires or the fuel tank of a car, which would be a BMW parked in a corner of this space. A thick stummy stunned spread over this area.

When the firefighters of SDIS 34 Arrived, it was completely ignited and there is only one black carcass. The flames had spread to trees. THE policeman of the central police station which were on the scene should open an investigation to determine the cause of this fire in the middle of the night, which would be suspect.

In recent days, not far from there, in the parking lot of a residence in the Saint-Cléophas-Lemasson district, vehicles have also been destroyed by fire. Nothing indicates for the time being that these fires are linked.

In Béziers too

Another car was burnt down in the night from Friday 2 to Saturday May 3, this time in Béziers. Around 1 hour, on Boulevard Jacques Cadenas, in the Devèze district, a Volkswagen caught fire for a determined reason. It has burned it entirely.

No specific statistics

No need to search in the interstats numbers the number of burned cars. The very official “cyclical analysis of crimes and crimes” details vehicle flights, flights in vehicles (trailer), vehicle accessories flights, but not their fires. The figures are included in “voluntary destruction and degradations” of all kinds, without being detailed. Only vehicles burnt down on New Year’s Eve Nights are revealed almost, or almost, by the Ministry of the Interior.

50,000 cars burned per year

In 2006, criminologist Alain Bauer estimated car fire fires at 30,000 per year for the years 1996-2005. From 2005 to 2010, he burned in France, on average, each year, 44,300, or even 50 000.

It is the data of insurance companies that allow you to obtain statistics. Thus, in 2019, an assessment of 110 cars burned per day was given, therefore 40,150 per year, specifying that it was necessary to add around 15 % to the official figures, in total around 50,000. In 2020, the insurance comparator Assurland quoted the number of cars that burn each year. And for 2022, with the data from France Insurers, we arrived at the figure of 44,280 vehicles burned for the year. The 2024 statistics are not yet known.

It remains to be determined how many cars are deliberately burnt down and why. Difficult and leading surveys attest that technical dysfunctions are often involved, but there are also insurance frauds. In 2013, the automotive fire scams were estimated at 15 % -20 %.

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