North East firefighters urging people to charge ebikes and escooters in the 'right environment'
There's been fresh warnings about the dangers of faulty lithium batteries
People in the North East and Teesside are being urged to charge their e-scooters or e-bikes in the right environment.
It comes after fresh danger warnings about faulty lithium batteries often found in those, as many will get one for Christmas.
Firefighters say they should not block off escape routes if something went wrong and a fire started.
Lee Aspery, Community Safety and Arson Reduction Manager at County Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Service, said: "Always buy from a reputable and well-known supplier. There are plenty of aftersales markets on the internet etc that you just don't know the provinence of the item that you're buying, so you really need to go preferably in high street stores so you can meet the person you're buying from, understand what the return policy and how you're going to have to look after that battery.
"Don't think you can just pop onto a website and buy something online. That's just not going to work and that's where we see most of our problems, where people are mixing or mismatching the charger to the battery unit, just because of the jack plug fits into the charger hole doesn't necessarily mean that's the right charger.
"Lithium batteries are a great technology but the problem with that is that they can be quite pricey, so people cut corners by buying online cheaper, imported chargers and what you tend to see is the battery basically balloons. The battery itself grows, it'll crackle and start to give off fairly thick smoke.
"People need to consider what's the charger requirement for that battery and then the environment where you're going to do that charging. You want it somewhere where people are often going to and from a place so they can keep an eye on the charger. A kitchen would be good and if it does start to change its appearance, or smell, you recognise that straight away.
"What I have seen is where fires where the battery's been left in the scooter or the bike at the bottom of the stairs, in the hallway or in a bedroom and that means the escape route in those places are now taken away from the family, so if you do have a fire, you're trapped in your room."
For more advice, visit the County Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Service website.