E-bike, scooter fires in Ottawa prompt warnings about safety | 24CA News
An e-scooter hearth in Ottawa’s Lowertown neighbourhood has officers urging folks to make sure any merchandise with lithium-ion batteries meet Canadian electrical requirements and are correctly maintained.
Firefighters had been referred to as to a Cathcart Street row residence advanced round 9 a.m. New Year’s Day after two bigger scooters had been engulfed in flames whereas underneath a carport.
“I didn’t know what exactly was burning,” stated Jason Leduc, a neighbour who tried to douse the blaze with a hearth extinguisher and a hose whereas his companion referred to as 911.
“It was reaching to the ceiling and it was, I mean, a super hot fire,” he stated. “It was just an orange red hot blaze.”
Thermal runaway
The reason behind Sunday’s hearth, and whether or not it started with the e-scooters or in the event that they had been merely a casualty, continues to be being investigated.
Yet, as micromobility merchandise — something from e-bikes and e-scooters to hoverboards and e-unicycles — improve in recognition, there’s been a rise domestically in fires associated to their lithium-ion batteries, with three such fires in Ottawa up to now three months.
“The scooters are everywhere,” stated Gerry Gill, division chief of security for Ottawa Fire Services. “People are using them for transport on city streets. They’re using them for delivery. Some people are making a living with them.”
They’re usually charged indoors, Gill stated, which might improve the hazard of “thermal runaway” — a chemical chain response that happens when battery casings grow to be broken, lose their insulation and result in quick circuits.
What comes subsequent, Gill stated, can happen simply as shortly as throwing a cigarette right into a wastepaper basket.
“The fire will spread faster than you can walk out of the room,” he stated.
Warning indicators embody effervescent, popping or hissing sounds, adopted by a white vapour cloud coming from the battery and a sickly candy scent. And it isn’t simply the hearth that may be lethal: hydrogen from batteries can combine with different chemical compounds to create hydrofluoric acid, stated Gill, which is extremely corrosive and might destroy tissue and bone.
In Canada, e-scooters and comparable units are regulated by means of the Canada Consumer Product Safety Act, whereas within the United States it is underneath the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
The fee despatched a letter to 2,000 producers in mid-December outlining security considerations with merchandise that do not meet well being and security requirements.
Between Jan. 1 and Nov. 28 of final yr, there have been a minimum of 208 fires or or incidents the place micromobility merchandise overheated, their letter stated. Nineteen folks died, together with a nine-year-old boy in New York, and a minimum of 22 folks had been injured.
“There’s no forced standard as of right now,” stated William Leishmen, who sells e-bikes at his ByWard Market store Scooteretti and stated he isn’t stunned fires are on the rise.
Not simply utilized in e-scooters
Lithium-ion batteries are discovered in lots of different merchandise, together with cell telephones, laptops and electrical toothbrushes. The New York Fire Department stated in an e mail to CBC it had investigated 320 fires leading to 10 deaths and a whole lot of accidents from merchandise utilizing the batteries throughout the identical 2022 timespan.
Gill stated one of the simplest ways to make sure a product stays secure is to observe the producer’s specs, get it frequently inspected, not use an aftermarket charging wire and guarantee the battery is stored at room temperature and receives respectable air circulation.
Most of all, folks mustn’t make any modifications themselves with out visiting a good restore individual.
“As a consumer, what’s really, really important is do your homework,” he stated.
“If it seems like a terrific deal otherwise you’re coping with a small firm and the value seems enticing, in the event that they have no certifications, by all means please keep away from these merchandise. You’re doing your self and your loved ones a favour.
