SEOUL, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- Two BMW vehicles sold in South Korea caught fire again on Thursday, increasing the total number of fire accidents from the German luxury vehicles to 36 in 2018 alone, according to local media reports.
A BMW 320d model caught fire at about 8:50 a.m. local time (2350 GMT Wednesday) on a highway in Uiwang city, just south of the capital Seoul.
The vehicle was gutted by fire completely and no one was hurt. The driver reportedly said the fire broke out while he was driving. Firefighters rushed to the scene and put out the fire in about 15 minutes.
The other BMW 730Ld model was destroyed completely by a fire that broke out at about 7:50 a.m. local time on a highway in Sacheon city.
The fire was extinguished by firefighters in about 10 minutes. No one was hurt from the incident.
The driver reportedly said he pulled over to change seats with his fellow passenger before finding smoke from the vehicle's exhaust pipe. The fellow passenger said he saw a spark from an engine area.
The German automaker announced a voluntary recall of 106,317 vehicles on July 26, but BMW models catching fire continued to be reported even from the vehicles not subject to the recall.
The number of BMW owners taking legal action kept rising. Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transportation Kim Hyun-mee said Wednesday that she was considering the order to stop the owners of fire-prone BMW vehicles from driving.
The BMW identified the fault of exhaust gas recirculation (EGR), or a component to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions of diesel engines, as the main cause of fire in the engine compartment.
