Battery Fires

AndyBike

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Nov 8, 2020
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Building burn't by EVs spontaneously igniting in the underground carpark:

Scores of tenants were forced to evacuate from an eight-story building on Surasak Road in Bangkok’s Bangrak district this morning, after a fire broke out in its underground parking lot.

Thick smoke rose through the building and was visible from outside.

The building’s website indicates that the lower floors are used as offices, while higher floors serve as residences.

An initial investigation suggests that the blaze may have been caused by electric vehicles parked in the underground lot.

At press time, firefighters and rescue workers were still working to control the fire, while tenants gathered around the area.

The number of vehicles damaged by the fire is still unknown, as firefighters must fully extinguish the blaze before they can gain access to the affected floors.
Nothing about 'Spontaneous' in the article.

Possibly a short circuit, but even then thats not spontaneous.
 
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Nealh

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Aug 7, 2014
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Whether the new thisis still prevalent as it goes back to Jan of 2024 the UK gov't back then branded UPP triangular batteries as dangerous, it had found at least twenty listings of the U004/U004-1 battery packs for sale on popular market places. The batteries were said to suffer from thermal runaway .

As we know a lot of these triangle bag batteries are bodged on to bikes dangling from the top bar in the bikes traingle, most will be associated with 1kw illegal mopeds.
 
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lenny

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May 3, 2023
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E-bike batteries pose 'fastest growing' fire risk
"According to South Wales Fire and Rescue Service, there were 136 fires involving lithium-ion batteries in south Wales from April 2020 to March 2025, with 100 recorded in the last two years.
Of those reported fires over the last five years:
  • 30 people were injured with 24 of these occurring in the last two years
  • 49 were accidental dwelling fires, with 34 of these occurring in the last two years. One of these incidents led to a fatality linked to a fire involving a fault in a battery charger.
  • Of the 136 incidents, 39 involved an e-scooter or an e-bike with 25 of these incidents occurring in the last two years. These led to 13 people being injured, 10 of which occurred in the last two years.
  • There were 16 accident dwelling fires in south Wales which involved an e-scooter or an e-bike with 10 of these occurring in the last two years. These incidents led to five people injured with three of these occurring in the last two years"
 

saneagle

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Oct 10, 2010
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E-bike batteries pose 'fastest growing' fire risk
"According to South Wales Fire and Rescue Service, there were 136 fires involving lithium-ion batteries in south Wales from April 2020 to March 2025, with 100 recorded in the last two years.
Of those reported fires over the last five years:
  • 30 people were injured with 24 of these occurring in the last two years
  • 49 were accidental dwelling fires, with 34 of these occurring in the last two years. One of these incidents led to a fatality linked to a fire involving a fault in a battery charger.
  • Of the 136 incidents, 39 involved an e-scooter or an e-bike with 25 of these incidents occurring in the last two years. These led to 13 people being injured, 10 of which occurred in the last two years.
  • There were 16 accident dwelling fires in south Wales which involved an e-scooter or an e-bike with 10 of these occurring in the last two years. These incidents led to five people injured with three of these occurring in the last two years"
1140 white goods fires in the two years 23/24 in England alone. I expect they burnt down a few houses and injured people too.
 

Ghost1951

Esteemed Pedelecer
Jun 2, 2024
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This is shameful, disingenuous rubbish as far as any statistical relevance is concerned.

Here is why:

There were twenty-six ebike and scooter fires in Manchester in each of the last two years and the chart makes the unwary think- 'Oooh! Look at that - these ebikes are more and more dangerous, but the number of ebike fires is really tiny when you consider that in the year ending June 2023, Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service attended 1682 house fires. They also dealt with 1124 road vehicle fires.

The chart on its own is a useless and deceptive misuse of data.

Twenty-six bike battery fires is a tiny part of their fire problem. One bike fire for every 64 of their house fire call outs and one bike fire for every 43 of their vehicle fire call outs.

Don't rig up a franken-battery cobbled together with junk and treat you battery sensibly and you will never have a problem.

All this hyperbolic chatter about ebike fires is having a very bad effect on sales and take up and also leading to suspicion by hoteliers and transport facilities. It is entirely unjustified in 99% of cases of people using ebikes. How many times has it been noted that the fires are usually cobbled together frankenbikes, driven very hard and charged with too high a current?
 
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saneagle

Esteemed Pedelecer
Oct 10, 2010
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Telford
This is shameful, disingenuous rubbish as far as any statistical relevance is concerned.

Here is why:

There were twenty-six ebike and scooter fires in Manchester in each of the last two years and the chart makes the unwary think- 'Oooh! Look at that - these ebikes are more and more dangerous, but the number of ebike fires is really tiny when you consider that in the year ending June 2023, Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service attended 1682 house fires. They also dealt with 1124 road vehicle fires.

The chart on its own is a useless and deceptive misuse of data.

Twenty-six bike battery fires is a tiny part of their fire problem. One bike fire for every 64 of their house fire call outs and one bike fire for every 43 of their vehicle fire call outs.

Don't rig up a franken-battery cobbled together with junk and treat you battery sensibly and you will never have a problem.

All this hyperbolic chatter about ebike fires is having a very bad effect on sales and take up and also leading to suspicion by hoteliers and transport facilities. It is entirely unjustified in 99% of cases of people using ebikes. How many times has it been noted that the fires are usually cobbled together frankenbikes, driven very hard and charged with too high a current?
Like you, I think the reaction is a bit hysterical, but it's because it's new. They figured out that there used to be none, and now there are 26, and they'd like it to go back to how it was with zero. One way to get zero is to ban ebikes and scooters. It saves lives, so must be a good thing. They don't care so much about washing machine fires because they've always had them, so it's not spoiling their statistics.