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Lithium-ion battery fires overview:
- Who: Concerns are being raised over exploding lithium-ion batteries following a rash of incidents — many involving electric micro mobility vehicles — that have led to injury or death.
- Why: Lithium-ion batteries are found in an increasing number of consumer technology products and micro mobility vehicles, but contain flammable materials and can wear down over time and/or or be affected by misuse.
- Where: Nationwide.
A number of recent fires caused by exploding lithium-ion batteries has raised concerns, with the batteries found in a number of popular consumer products and transportation mobiles such as electric transit buses and scooters.
The rise in scrutiny follows a massive five-alarm fire in New York earlier this month that officials believed was started by an exploding lithium-ion battery in an electric scooter that was on top of an apartment building, CNN reports.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), meanwhile, issued a call late last year for manufacturers of e-scooters, hoverboards, e-bicycles and e-unicycles to review their product lines to ensure they comply with voluntary safety standards.
The CPSC said it received as many as 208 reports of fires from 39 states that were related to fires or “overheating incidents” caused by micro-mobility vehicles — resulting in at least 19 deaths — between 2021 and 2021.
NYFD responded to more than 200 fires caused by electric scooters, e-bikes last year
In New York alone, the New York City Fire Department responded to more than 200 fires caused by electric scooters and e-bikes last year, with the incidents resulting in a total of six fatalities, according to UL Research Institutes.
Other notable recent fires believed to be caused by exploding lithium-ion batteries include an electronic transit bus in Connecticut in July 2022 and a New York City apartment fire in August 2022 that killed a woman and a child, NBC News reports.
Lithium-ion batteries have become an increasingly popular way to power consumer technology products — such as cameras, laptops, smartphones — however they also contain flammable materials and can suffer from aging or misuse, according to CNN.
“Lithium batteries are generally safe and unlikely to fail, but only so long as there are no defects and the batteries are not damaged or mistreated,” the Occupational Safety and Health Administration wrote, in a 2019 safety and health information bulletin.
A consumer filed a class action lawsuit against HP Inc. in October, arguing the company sold HP laptops allegedly containing defective lithium-ion batteries that negatively affected the battery life of the device.
Have you been affected by a fire caused by an exploding lithium-ion battery? Let us know in the comments.
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48 thoughts onRecent lithium-ion battery fires cause concern
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A few weeks ago my son’s Apple iPhone 14 started on fire in his pocket at work. His employer caught the entire incident on their security cam. The phone was destroyed. Thank God he only received minor burns, because he wore insulated fireproof bib overalls. The video is amazing. We are trying to work with apple to get reimbursement….we haven’t released the video yet, until we hear their response
I had an anroid phone that got hot and the battery started swelling. I threw it on the ground just in time before it caught on fire.
Yes this happen to me & my son
A apple phone owned by me that was on my grandson line caught fire at school in the gym it was plug in charging in his hand destroyed the phone melted the school plug actually think we still have the phone
Yea my battery have inflated lucky enough to check before it explodes
We had one explode in my son’s room recently. If we hadn’t been home it would of ended badly.
Yes I have been a victim of ion batteries fire
I haven’t had a fire but I did have a battery in my old tablet swell up to the point of breaking the back casing from my tablet screen and nearly bursting. It’s weird too, because at the time I wasn’t using that tablet because I had purchased a RCA VIKKING PRO a couple of days before I realized that the tablet was like that. It was sitting on top of my dresser in the off(powered off completely) position and not covered by anything, wasn’t plug in for charging, wasn’t sitting on anything hot, or in direct sunlight. Also, it was in a air conditioned room so heat exposure or direct sunlight was never an issue. The tablet was running fine before I powered it off and didn’t show any indications of any issues and it hadn’t been used in like four days before I realized the battery was like that. It swelled almost to the battery’s breaking point of packaging. I hadn’t had the tablet for that long either, I was still within a six months period from when I had purchased it. The warranty from manufacturer was still good so it couldn’t been older than a year since I had gotten it.
I had to cut the wires leading to the battery from the tablet and have stored the swollen battery in airtight container and is sitting somewhere in a box in my storage closet, but only did this after taking pictures for proof when I had planned to contact Amazon and the vendor who sold it to me. Never actually got around to filing the complaint with them but I kept the pictures and pretty sure screen shot of the receipt of purchase from them. But this was nearly eight years ago.
I had the same thing happen but mine dropped and it started on fire after the battery Swelled up .