The growing popularity of electric bikes is causing a swathe of house fires, an investigation by The Mail on Sunday has revealed.
Fire chiefs are reporting a ‘hugely alarming’ escalation in the number of blazes caused by the batteries on the bikes catching fire while being charged in homes.
London Fire Brigade has revealed there have been 34 e-bike battery fires in the capital alone so far this year, compared with 47 during the whole of 2021. And there is evidence of a similar pattern of fires in other parts of the country.
Equipment bought on the internet is thought to be the principal cause, particularly when standard pedal bikes have been fitted with home-conversion kits.
Last week, a family of seven were taken to hospital after an e-bike battery sparked a blaze that gutted their semi-detached home in Rugeley, Staffordshire, destroying all their possessions.
It follows another blaze last month in a tower block in West London – close to the site of the Grenfell Tower fire. The e-bike battery caught fire while being charged overnight in a 12th-floor flat, leading to the block being evacuated.
Amother of four in her 50s was shot in the back with a ‘massive machine gun’ outside her own home in south London last night after a suspected ‘drive-by gone wrong’.
Emergency services arrived at the scene in Coston Walk, Brockley after reports of the shooting at 8.10pm yesterday evening, Friday July 15.
A neighbour said the victim, named locally as ‘Sue’, was shot in the back twice after being ‘caught in the crossfire’.
He added that he did not think it was likely that she was the intended target because ‘nobody would shoot a sweet old lady’.
‘There’s always a lot of boys there, whoever did it saw someone outside their house and unfortunately she got shot,’ he told MyLondon.
