FIRE IN THE HOLE

Fires in homes where there are e-vehicles, are on the increase in the capital. The London Fire Brigade are being called out to a rising number of fires, thought to originate from e-scooters or e-bikes, more in fact, by the beginning of September this year, than during the whole of 2022 when there were only 116 fires in total. This is probably due to the fact that more and more people are riding e-scooters and e-bikes in London as they are practical and easy to use in city traffic, and they are keeping them inside their homes.
In fact the London Fire Brigade are currently facing a fire caused by an e-scooter or e-bike every two days. Up until the end of August, figures were standing at 104 fires from e-bikes and 19 e-scooters.
Some of the causes are likely to be the purchase of hazardous batteries and conversion kits from online stores which are unregulated and which may appear to be safe but maybe they don’t meet proper safety standards. In depth research needs to be done into the causes in order to eliminate them and make this mode of transport safer, both to charge and to use out there on the mean streets.
The Fire Brigade would ideally prefer e-bikes or e-scooters not to be kept inside any property because of the fire risk, but they do understand that this is really unrealistic as most people don’t have a garage and don’t want to leave a valuable machine outside.
As the fires can be very fierce, if owners have to keep their bikes inside out of necessity, then the fire safety advice to follow is:
Don’t store your vehicle near a front door, in an access hallway or on any potential fire escape route as, if it bursts into flames, it would block your exit route. Three people have been killed already this year in possible e-vehicle battery fires and 51 injured.
Do you own an e-vehicle and if so what do you think about further research and legislation regarding the use and ownership of them?
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