A shanghai resident's home caught fire and caused 3 deaths, China firefighting: electric bicycles have become a prominent hidden danger

Source: The Paper

At about 1:49 a.m. on February 8, a fire broke out in the home of a resident in Shanghai's Putuo District, killing three people. It was initially determined that the fire was caused by the failure of the lithium-ion battery for electric bicycles placed in the bedroom.

On the evening of February 9, the China Fire Department issued a notice saying that it is understood that the fire occurred in a rental house on the 2nd floor of a five-story residential building, and the fire area was mainly in the bedroom, and the fire area was about 20 square meters. The deceased was a tenant of the house.

At 1:51 on the same day, after the local emergency linkage center received the alarm, it immediately dispatched 8 fire trucks and 40 fire rescue personnel to the scene for disposal. The Zhabei Fire Rescue Station, the supervisor, arrived at the scene at 1:59 to start fire fighting and rescue, and extinguished the fire at 2:14. During this period, 3 trapped people were searched and rescued on the inside of the bedroom door of Room 202, and all of them were confirmed by 120 to have no vital signs.

After investigation and inquiry, on-site investigation, surveillance video analysis and technical identification, it was preliminarily determined that the cause of the fire was caused by the failure of the lithium-ion battery for electric bicycles (the output voltage of which was initially identified as exceeding 60V).

The circular mentioned that electric bicycles have become a prominent hidden danger affecting the safety of the masses.

In recent years, electric bicycles have become a travel choice for many people because of their convenience and speed, but the safety risks brought about by them have also increased dramatically. The data shows that last year, the country received nearly 18,000 fires caused by electric bicycles and their batteries, killing 57 people. The reasons for the frequent fires of electric bicycles are mainly inferior batteries, user modifications at will, home charging, long-term charging and so on.

The hazards of electric vehicle fires are mainly manifested in the high temperature of the fire field and toxic smoke. Experimental data show that if an electric vehicle catches fire for 30 seconds, toxic smoke can cover the entire room and corridor, producing a large amount of toxic smoke, which is very easy to cause casualties.

More than half of all EV fires occur during nighttime charging hours. Early morning to dawn this time people are often asleep, some car owners put electric vehicles in the corridor or living room all night charging, once a fire, it is difficult to find and escape in time, it is easy to cause casualties.

How to use an e-bike safely? China Fire Department said it must not park electric vehicles indoors, such as corridors, stairwells, homes, or safe fire escapes.

The Paper's reporter Gong Hanyu