"Growing concern" over rise in e-bike scooter fires in Cambridgeshire
In Cambs, there were three recorded fires in 2023 caused by faulty e-scooter or e-bike lithium-ion batteries
Last updated 19th Feb 2024
The fire service in Cambridgeshire says there is ‘growing concern’ over the rise in the number of fires involving e-bikes and e-scooters.
It comes after Greatest Hits Radio was given exclusive access to an All Party Parliamentary Group meeting this evening, where a man who lost his family in an e-bike fire in Cambridge will be meeting MPs, fire services and nurses to share his story.
The Cambridgeshire Fire & Rescue service leadership says it is not currently seeing the level of fires that other areas are, but said they could see where the trend is heading.
The fire service said it is working to prevent fires caused by e-bikes and e-scooters, while also training firefighters on how to tackle ‘e-fires’.
In Cambridgeshire there were three recorded fires in 2023 caused by faulty e-scooter or e-bike lithium-ion batteries.
The service said there was one recorded fire in 2022, one in 2021, and four recorded fires caused by faulty batteries in 2020.
However, it said there is a possibility that the number of fires caused by e-bike and e-scooter batteries has been underreported, as this information needs to be added to an open text box in the recording system.
Jon Anderson, assistant chief fire officer, told a meeting of the fire authority last week (15/2), that as e-bikes and e-scooters become more popular, there is “growing national concern” about the rise of these batteries being involved in fires.
He said in London the fire service is being called out to one fire every two days involving the lithium-ion batteries.
Mr Anderson said Cambridgeshire is no on the same scale as London, but said: “You can see a trend and you can see where this is heading.”
He explained the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) has put an officer in charge of leading on the work to look at how best to prevent the fires and how to tackle them operationally.
Mr Anderson said: “We are working very closely with that officer and we have a good understanding of what is going on from a national point of view."
“The NFCC have produced e-bikes and e-fire safety guidance, we are currently using these within our prevention and protection activities.
“In terms of operational training, that is being provided to all of our operational staff on the risks and tactics of fire fighting if dealing with those incidents.
“We have also set up a joint team from prevention and protection, that is engaging with the Cambridge Landlords Forum providing information on specific threats and emerging risks raised by e-scooters and e-bikes.
“We also have a county risk analysis group which takes information intelligence and we use that to adapt a joint approach to risk between different departments, and ensure as a collective service we have awareness and we are managing the situation as best we can.”