A quick-thinking Brighton man dragged his electric scooter onto his balcony as it exploded this afternoon.
The man, who lives in Milner Flats off Kingswood Street, said the bangs sounded like a machine gun.
Once it was on the balcony, he threw a fire blanket over it and called 999.
He also warned children playing on the swings a few yards away from the flat to keep their distance.
Fortunately, nobody was injured.
The second-hand scooter, which he bought a couple of months ago, has been thrown away and the batteries put aside until they can disposed of safely.
In a statement, the fire service said: “East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service was called out at 1.14pm to reports of a scooter fire on a balcony.
Crews attended Milner Flats on Kingswood Street, Brighton. They used two breathing apparatus and hosereel.
“There are no reports of injuries and the fire was accidental. The residents did the right thing by calling 999 immediately.”
In August, an ITV investigation revealed the number of e-scooter and e-bike fires had risen from 40 in 2020 to 106 last year, and there had already been 203 in the first seven months of 2022.
Most of these fires happen in people’s homes, while the scooters and bikes are charging.
Those Lithium batteries are lethal, and water makes things worse.
On ‘Trucking Hell’ a driver had to pick up a car transporter that was carrying two lithium battery powered cars which had caught fire.
He had to have a fire engine escort him back to his yard in case the cars caught fire.
When he got back to the yard the cars were lowered into skips filled with water, so that they wouldn’t re-ignite!!
As they are illegal to use on the road or pavement, I guess the living room and balcony were the only places he could use it ?
Just yet further proof that the government need to stop dragging their heels and get some proper legislation on these e scooters. Far too many cheap and unrestricted speed imported scooters are being bought. Proper legislation would protect riders, pedestrians and other road users. The genie is out of the bottle these are obviously an efficient and green way to travel and grow in popularity – doing nothing is npt an option.
E scooters should not be allowed anywhere. Those that ride them disregard the law and are a menace on the roads and pavements. The worst offenders are those cretins that ride at night in black clothes with no lights. Now even food delivery riders are using them at night with no lights. Apparently they are not just used for food delivery but drugs as well. The police should crack down and confiscate every riders scooter automatically and destroy them.