London firefighters called out to over 130 e-bike and e-scooter battery blazes in just over a year

[soundwave]

Over 130 e-bike and e-scooter battery fires in just over a year

Firefighters have been called to more than 130 fires involving the type of batteries used in e-bikes and e-scooters in London in little over a year, it can be revealed.

www.standard.co.uk

 

[Nealh]

Problem is educating people not to leave them on charge indefinitely and not to charge at all if they notice something wrong , like smoke or strange smells.
Bike batteries I think are somewhat safer, however small wheeled scooters must suffer far more vibration due to the bottom board location and the jarring from the small wheels that provide no shock absorbing.

 

[Andy-Mat]

Over 130 e-bike and e-scooter battery fires in just over a year

Firefighters have been called to more than 130 fires involving the type of batteries used in e-bikes and e-scooters in London in little over a year, it can be revealed.

www.standard.co.uk

Worrying.

 

[soundwave]

some ppl are just to stupid like that guy the other day with smoke coming out of his batt and said it still works and charges lmfao, no that is a bomb trying to explode

Smoke coming out of e-bike battery

Halfords Assist E-Bike Battery.

www.youtube.com

 

[MontyPAS]

Worrying.

Why?

 

[richtea99]

Worrying.

Not really. Cookers are far more dangerous:
- almost everyone has a cooker
- not everyone is skilled at using them

Smoking is next, with a significantly higher relative fatality rate (smokers falling asleep, I guess)

Electrical appliances is 4th in the list, which I'm guessing a ebike/escooter fire would come under, and has a relatively low fatality rate.

'Whilst cooking appliances were by far the biggest ignition category for accidental dwelling fires in the financial year 2020 to 2021 (46% of fires) those fires were responsible for 10 per cent of fatalities. Smoking materials showed the reverse with only eight per cent of fires resulting in 32 per cent of accidental dwelling fire fatalities. '

Ref:

Detailed analysis of fires attended by fire and rescue services, England, April 2020 to March 2021

www.gov.uk

 

[guerney]

Candles are a menace ... which the ladies of the house seem obsessed with - it took ages to redecorate when one set fire to a table... had to throw a lot of heat and smoke damaged items away, grip, grip, gripe. But at least the house didn't burn down.

 

[Andy-Mat]

Why?

Why do you need an explanation?
This number is just the "top of the pile", there were probaby 5 times more incidents, all simply not reported.
Either some batteries are being made wrongly, or of poor qualty cells, or the owners are being stupid in some manner......I cannot say without a great deal more detail, which will never be forthcoming....
Andy

 

[soundwave]

Why do you need an explanation?
This number is just the "top of the pile", there were probaby 5 times more incidents, all simply not reported.
Either some batteries are being made wrongly, or of poor qualty cells, or the owners are being stupid in some manner......I cannot say without a great deal more detail, which will never be forthcoming....
Andy

if i cant find a way to recell my bosch 400w batt then i will set it on fire and put it on youtube

or send it to Photonicinduction and get him to supercharge it with 1000v and 200a woof

 

[MontyPAS]

Why do you need an explanation?
This number is just the "top of the pile", there were probaby 5 times more incidents, all simply not reported.
Either some batteries are being made wrongly, or of poor qualty cells, or the owners are being stupid in some manner......I cannot say without a great deal more detail, which will never be forthcoming....
Andy

Think you've answered your own question.
The number of fires are miniscule compared to the number of products in use. It's just scaremongering

 

[richtea99]

Why do you need an explanation?
...there were probaby 5 times more incidents, all simply not reported.

It seems likely that other types of fires would not be reported either, so adding a random multipier of 5 isn't logical.

Let's dig in a bit to see how '130' fires might blossom:
'...e-scooter batteries being blamed for at least five residential fires in London this year - in Brixton, Leytonstone, Newham, Willesden and West Drayton. '
and
'...104 fires involving lithium batteries last year - 44 from e-bikes, 28 from e-scooters and 32 other incidents, including mobile phones, laptops and cases where the e-scooter or e-bike was not identified. '

If 28 e-scooter fires resulted in 5 house fires, then the 44 ebikes ones might be responsible for another 44/28 *5 = 8 more house fires. So let's estimate it's 5+8 =:
- 13 house fires from e-scooters and ebikes in London.

London has a population of around 1/10th of the whole UK, so that 13 would equate to:
- 130 house fires across the whole country

From the gov link I posted earlier:
- accidental dwelling fires 24,296 (2020/21)

130 from 24,296 is peanuts, but that's because escooters/ebikes aren't that common yet.

From https://cyclingindustry.news/electric-bike-sales-value-bike-demand-rising/
- 'Mintel does estimate that 170,000 e-bikes were sold in 2020... one in 20 cycles bought in volume terms.'

Worst case - assuming ALL new bikes purchased were ebikes, we need to multiply the house fire figure of 130 by 20 to get an estimate of how dangerous it would be if all new bikes purchased were electric:
- 130 * 20 = 2,600 house fires

So worst case, ~10% of house fires in future might be due to escooters/ebikes, if sales are 100% electric.
As a fire service, I'd want to investigate that.

In the grand scheme it's still peanuts compared to cookers and smoking.
And it's still not worrying.