Battery FIRE.

[ALAN/ALAN D]

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/f ... e-28087571

Living in a house at ground level you can pick various windows to smash your way out.
In a block of flats you only have the one entrance.

[AE-NMidlands]

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/f ... e-28087571
Living in a house at ground level you can pick various windows to smash your way out.
In a block of flats you only have the one entrance.

the BBC report https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-63031602 has more detail:

Bristol City Council owns the tower block and said the fire was contained in a flat. Residents said they told the council of their fears about homemade electric bicycles being stored there.
Ahmed Sharif, who lives on the third floor of the tower block with four children, said he had been warning the caretaker for months about electrical bikes being kept on the upper floors.

He said the bikes were a "homemade version" and not made by a manufacturer.
"Someone actually designed it poorly and most of them actually have a cheaper version of Lithium ion batteries," which could be more dangerous, he added.
This "has been raised several times, but nobody has done anything about" it, he said.

[Stinsy]

Just to clarify that LiFePO4 batteries used in (most) domestic batteries (eg Pylontech and homemade by Joeboy etc.) cannot burn.

[Oldgreybeard]

The big problem with the home made electric bike fraternity (and this fire was caused by a home made ebike, almost certainly an illegal one) is that they very often use pretty dubious battery packs (i.e. the cheapest that they can draw tens, or hundreds, of amps from). If you ever have a read through the home made ebike forums online then you'll soon learn that they are dominated by people trying to make the fastest ebikes going, using cheap parts from places like eBay and Aliexpress, very often without bothering to fit any sort of BMS at all.

The cheapest, lightest, batteries are the ones for model aircraft. These have no form of protection, BMS, nothing, they are the most dangerous lithium chemistry going (lithium cobalt) and are exceptionally prone to swelling, outgassing, exploding or just catching fire spontaneously, unless they are used with a well-designed BMS and charged with a proper charger. These latter steps are often ignored by many ebike builders.

The same was true of hoverboards some years ago. They very often used unprotected battery packs with the cheap LiCo chemistry and as a consequence there were a fair few cases of hoverboards catching fire or exploding.

[Mr Gus]

Any cheap set up, where corners have been cut & a flammable type battery...
Not just shines & scooters...

Packet cell battery usb portables, anything, in f we apply the same degree of hysteria that this affords lazy reportage, then we should all be banned from taking a Samsung branded phone home, on planes, public transport etc, ..papers / cross media will never address nor explain battery differences & contextualize the risk is not across the board.

From what did the "several complaints to the caretaker" stem from & relate too? . .we're it's guts hanging out in the rain, sparking & smoking? ..previous battery fire? (We are none the wiser, but non contextualized seemingly sensational soundbytes are naturally in print)

If anyone else's something solid on this please link it / are to the thread.

My first thoughts were no emergency ladder to climb out & clip onto below the window & wait for rescue / be able to reach flat below & maybe put a window through to get out of harms way.


Flaming cells are nasty, bring back fire blankets for the modern age which are designed for lithium..
I doubt many of us with woodstoves don't have a suppression plan (roasting pan) & fire gloves to remove excess fuel in event of a chimney fire, ...the pizza box suction fire will be a featured fire brigade response this winter if folks burn anything & everything.