Lucknow EV Showroom Fire: 17 Vehicles Gutted in Gola Bazaar, No Injuries; Battery Short Circuit Suspected

What happened

On the evening of Wednesday, 21 October 2026, a fire broke out at an electric two-wheeler showroom in the Gola Bazaar (Sadar Bazaar) area of Lucknow Cantonment, under Sadar Cantt police station limits, Uttar Pradesh. It spread through the showroom and damaged the utensil shop next door. Nobody was reported hurt or killed. The Times of India reports that 17 vehicles were gutted: eight electric scooters and nine motorcycles. News24 counts eight electric scooters, and Patrika says only “several” electric vehicles burnt, so the full count of 17 and its split rest on one outlet.

News24 and Amar Ujala put the start at about 8.15 p.m. The Times of India says the fire department received the information at 8.27 p.m. and sent three fire tenders, and that the blaze was brought under control in nearly an hour. Amar Ujala says the Chief Fire Officer, Ankush Mittal, gave the same one-hour figure. Flames rose several feet, the market was crowded, and the Times of India describes panic among shopkeepers and residents.

The response

Amar Ujala and Newstrack report that Hazratganj Fire Station Officer Mam Chand Badgujar reached the spot with three fire tenders, found the flames growing, and called five more from nearby stations, making eight. Other outlets give different numbers: Newstrack’s headline and Patrika say 10 fire tenders, News24 says three arrived about 20 minutes after the alert and three more were called, six in all, and the Times of India mentions three. We have not found a fire service statement that settles it, so treat the number as between six and ten.

Cantt police evacuated the neighbouring shops as a precaution and, according to Amar Ujala and Newstrack, stopped people from coming within about a kilometre. News24 says shopkeepers alerted the electricity department and power to the area was cut. Amar Ujala and Newstrack say thick smoke made it hard for firefighters to breathe. Traffic on the road was affected for some time. Showroom staff, the neighbouring shopkeeper and customers ran out as the fire spread, according to Newstrack and Amar Ujala.

Cause, as reported

No outlet has reported a confirmed cause. The Times of India and Newstrack say a short circuit involving a battery inside the showroom is suspected. Amar Ujala says the short circuit happened while an e-scooter was charging in the showroom and that batteries stored there burst one after another. Patrika says the fire spread fast because of batteries and plastic parts, and that the preliminary inquiry points to the stored batteries. Chief Fire Officer Mittal said the early finding was a short circuit and the exact cause would be examined further. Until that examination is published, this page does not state a cause as fact.

Loss and what we could not find

The loss has not been valued. News24 says goods worth lakhs of rupees were damaged across the showroom and the utensil shop; Patrika says the loss will be known only after the fire is fully out. None of the reports we opened mentions an FIR, whether the building had a fire safety clearance (fire NOC), what firefighting equipment the showroom had, or how many vehicles were on charge at the time. Outlets also give different names for the showroom’s owner, so we are not repeating any name.

Why this matters

Showrooms and workshops hold a lot of stored energy in a small space: rows of vehicles with lithium-ion packs, loose batteries, chargers on shared sockets, plastic bodies and tyres. A fault in one place can reach the next vehicle quickly, and the market around it may be packed with people on an evening during the festival season. This is not the first such fire we have covered. See the Bengaluru EV showroom fire, where an employee died, the Seelampur market fire, where a charging scooter was claimed to be the source, and the Vijayawada EV car fire, which began after a crash.

Lucknow’s outcome, no one hurt and the fire kept to two shops, is the good version of this story. Staff ran out early and the fire service came with additional tenders when the first three were not enough.

What the standards require, and what they do not

Indian type-approval rules do address battery safety. AIS-156 Amendment 3 (September 2022), “Specific Requirements for L Category Electric Power Train Vehicles”, which covers electric two- and three-wheelers, adds a thermal-propagation test: a single-cell thermal runaway must not lead to fire or explosion of the battery pack, and the pack must give an audio-visual warning at least five minutes before fire or explosion. It also requires a battery management system with over-charge, over-discharge, over-temperature, overcurrent and short-circuit protection, and a charger with a voltage cut-off and a soft start. These are requirements on how a new vehicle model is tested; they do not tell us whether the vehicles that burnt in Lucknow met them, and nothing reported says anything about that. Standards also do not cover how a showroom stores and charges dozens of vehicles. For that, the owner has to rely on electrical and fire-safety practice and on the local fire authority.

Lessons for showrooms, workshops and homes

• Charge in a planned place, in daylight, and be present. Do not leave vehicles on charge overnight or with nobody around, and do not charge on an extension board or a damaged socket. Use the charger supplied with the vehicle. If a pack gets hot, swells, smells or makes noises, stop charging and move away.
• Space the stock out and keep batteries separate. Keep exits and passages free, keep spare batteries away from vehicles, cardboard and packaging, and do not stack vehicles tightly against the shutter. A fire can cross a whole showroom quickly.
• Have the wiring checked. A licensed electrician should check load, earthing, MCBs and RCCBs, and loose joints in a showroom that runs many chargers. See our blog on why e-bikes catch fire.
• Know the fire basics and have the paperwork. Ask your local fire authority whether your premises needs a fire NOC and what equipment it expects, and fit smoke detection and a fire alarm where it advises. Our guide to lithium-ion battery fires explains why a small extinguisher will not stop a pack in thermal runaway.
• If a battery or vehicle starts to burn, get out first. Raise the alarm, get everyone including customers out, shut the door behind you if you safely can, and call 112 or 101 from outside. Do not go back for stock or papers. Smoke from burning battery packs is toxic; stay upwind and away.
• Do not stand and watch. Keep a distance from the building and the road in front so that fire tenders and ambulances can reach it. Lucknow police cordoned off about a kilometre.
• Tell the fire service what is inside. Say that electric vehicles and batteries are involved. This helps firefighters choose their approach, and any fire service guidance on the burnt-out battery is theirs to give.
• At home, treat the e-scooter like a heater. Do not park and charge it in a stairwell or by the only door of the house, and do not charge it while everyone is asleep.

Why firefighters use water on an EV fire

Fire services do use water on electric-vehicle fires, but the picture is not “pour on as much as you can”. A 2026 report from UL’s Fire Safety Research Institute (FSRI), written for US firefighters, recommends water from a normal handline as the first-choice tactic with no special agent needed, applied to the passenger compartment, to protect nearby property and to stop the cabin re-igniting while the battery burns out. The same report says that copious water on the vehicle and battery pack is not effective because of the way the vehicle is built, and that responders should assume a battery can re-ignite until it has clearly burned out. It also warns of toxic smoke and of a deflagration risk when fire blankets are used indoors or in confined spaces. This is research on cars and is not Indian fire service guidance. We did not find an Indian guideline specific to two-wheeler showroom fires. For the public the practical meaning is simple: do not try to put out a burning battery pack yourself; leave it to the fire service. For vehicle fires in general, see our car fire safety guide.

More on Lucknow: see our Lucknow fire and emergency safety guide for emergency numbers, the fire stations and the local risks to know.

What is still not known

The official cause, the number of vehicles that were on charge, the value of the loss, any fire NOC, any FIR and any inquiry remain unreported in the sources we opened. We will update this page when the fire service or police publish a finding.