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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
Recently a lithium battery operated portable baby fan randomly went up in flames a foot away from my face. I immediately grabbed it, while in flames, and had to throw it outside in the front yard. I will never use anything with a lithium ion battery ever again.
Add me
Please add me . Suffered burn on my leg after lithium battery powering my scooter exploded.
Add me please. We purchased some rechargeable batteries that came with a charger from Amazon and just received them on 5/26. The reviews were great and they said they were safe. We used them 3 times. Last night I took a battery out of the charger because it finished charging and it. After I took it out of the charger, it exploded shooting fire on my wall, on me and shot battery parts across my kitchen. I was able to get the fire out. I threw it on my freezer and was able to cover it to stop the flames from spreading up the wall. Our house was filled with that awful smoke. Even with keeping some windows open and an air purifier, it still smells. We have to do a deep clean today as we realized there’s soot all over everything. These batteries were advertised as safe. With protection in place so they wouldn’t catch on fire. This is false. We live in a mobile home. We could have lost our home if the wall had caught on fire
Also my freezer is metal, it burned into my freezer before completely extinguishing.
Yes, I purchased these for my doorbell camera
my grandson is on his 2nd e-scooter. to my knowledge the 1st didn’t explode so far n his 2nd is only 4 months old. i’m now terrified that the battery will explode on him while he’s riding it. plz add me
My iPhone 5s got so hot I couldn’t hold on to it. Because I was driving I threw it in floorboard after turning off so it wouldn’t explode.
I was sitting at my desk in my bedroom, had my Raven, android phone sitting on my dresser, and I heard a crackling noise, went over to my dresser and the noise was coming from my cell phone. I opened the phone, the battery was bubbling and melting. The battery fell out of the phone and flipped over 2 times and it left 2 burn marks on my original wood floors.
I have an ANCHOR mobile phone auxiliary battery and the batteries are set to explode- the phone charger itself is no longer workable and the batteries are bloated to burst- These products are genuinely a clear and present danger-they are ticking time bombs literally and physically ! We can keep complaining or move to hold these companies accountable. Let’s stop this waiting game….airlines already do not allow same in their airliners and the fact that these items are considered dangerous should have been enough to bring forth justice…All I see is a 12 year old teen with a phone charger-bursting in his room while sleeping and the mortal risk to our youth, to our senior citizens, whom through no fault of their own-would pre-emptively store a device and it blows -causing a fire, a loss of life!
I had a Samsung A32 when I had gotten it through spectrum mobile phones services only after 2days of having the cellphone it blow up in my car while I’m driving home from work when I had to pull over to the side of the road with the car was filling up with smoke and battery acid leaking from the cellphone onto my car floor bord and then have to throw the cellphone out of my car so it won’t catch car on fire