– David Shi woke to an alarm in the early hours of January 5. Mr Shi was at the time running his e-bike company through a warehouse in Croydon in Sydney’s inner west with about 500 bikes inside.

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Mr Shi, who lived next door with four others, immediately ran to the warehouse after hearing the alarm, only to see fire.

He tried to put out the blaze himself, but the smoke was too much. He called triple-0, with firefighters arriving on the scene 10 minutes later, he recalled.Loading…

“In one night, you lose everything,” he told the ABC.

“You just wait. You can’t do anything — wait for [the fire] to destroy everything.”

While Fire and Rescue NSW (FRNSW) has not confirmed the cause of the fire, the type and number of batteries in the e-bikes — lithium-ion batteries — contributed to its intensity.

Mr Shi said the fire was so intense, his home is now considered unlivable.

Lithium-ion battery fires on the rise

There have been 64 fires related to lithium-ion batteries in New South Wales this year, resulting in two deaths.

Since January 2023, there have been 1,000 related fires nationally.

First commercialised during the 1990s, lithium-ion batteries have become increasingly common.

Driven by their place in products like electric vehicles, e-bikes and consumer goods, demand for these rechargeable batteries has surged in recent years.

It’s been predicted that the global industry could be worth over $US400 billion ($604 billion) by 2030.

But while these batteries are important to greener energy, one consistent problem is the related fires.

‘More aggressive fire activity’

According to Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) data, the bulk of safety reports from lithium-ion batteries during the 2023 financial year were rechargeable batteries, renewable energy storage systems, and e-scooters.

FRNSW Acting Superintendent Mathew Sigmund said that the larger lithium-ion batteries found in e-bikes and e-scooters “can come with more potential risk of faster, more aggressive fire activity”.

“However the intensity and spread of fire also relates to location, fuel loads around the battery at the time of the fire, time frame from fire starting to intervention along with many other factors.”

Lithium-ion battery-related fires can also be caused in a number of ways, such as battery cells being crushed.

Another is “thermal runaway”, where a lithium-ion battery overheats, causing some of the materials to gasify. That gas then builds pressure until the battery cell bursts.

“That gas is flammable, and if that gas is near an ignition source, it will catch fire,” CSIRO principal research scientist Adam Best said.

Dr Best recommended, to avoid a battery going into thermal runaway, to not charge a product in direct sunlight or when it’s become too hot.

Some early signs of a thermal runaway include a hissing noise, liquid coming out, or if parts of the product are starting to melt.

“They’re very clear early signs of thermal runaway,” Dr Best said.

Dr Best said, if possible, dump the product in water. But, if smoke is already coming from the battery, leave the space and call triple-0.

“The smoke is extraordinarily toxic. And it’s not uncommon for people to be overwhelmed by that smoke, not necessarily by the fire,” he said.

Varying standards of products

According to Dr Best, the cause of thermal runaway isn’t related to the battery necessarily, but the products containing them.

“What happens is that secondary vendors will purchase those [batteries] and then package them up in their own way,” Dr Best said.

One issue is varying qualities of battery management systems, the system in a product that “regulates the voltage and current current and other safe features” related to the battery.

One common feature in these systems is temperature management, which prevents charging if the battery is too hot.

“There are some products where those features are not connected, such that when you try and plug a charger in, it just charges anyway, even if that’s an unsafe condition,” Dr Best said.

“That’s because to add those features sometimes costs money.”

Thermal runaway can occur if lower quality or damaged chargers are used, or if products have been modified.

“This then means that the battery management system, or the electronics inside that device, are not matched or rated to that size battery.

“What we do encourage consumers to do is not necessarily buy the cheapest product [and to] think about making sure you’ve always got [Original Equipment Manufacturer] produce provided chargers and charging cables.”

Need for national standards

NSW Energy Minister Penny Sharpe said this week that the state government was in talks with the federal government to strengthen laws surrounding lithium-ion batteries.

“There’s very reputable battery suppliers but people are getting cheaper ones as e-bikes proliferate,” she said.

But while it’s understood what can create these fires, one issue is a lack of consistent guidelines and regulations.

Currently, electrical safety is regulated by each state and territory.

In October, the ACCC published a report which noted that the “current regulatory framework does not squarely address the safety risks” of lithium-ion batteries.

ACCC deputy chair Catriona Lowe told the ABC that, while incidents were low compared to the quantity of lithium-ion batteries in Australia, those incidents can be “very serious”.

“ This is why it is incredibly important that the regulatory frameworks adequately respond to what are going to become more and more common products, particularly as we move through our transition to net zero,” she said.

According to the report, there is no national quality standard or lithium-battery disposal guidelines, potentially contributing to confusion and variation in product safety.

There is also no national database to track incidents.

The same report highlights that Australian Consumer Law does not “contain the full suite of tools needed to effectively regulate specialist products, such as electrical products”.

“We are supportive of retaining the state and territory expertise, but what we would like to see is a nationally consistent framework,” Ms Lowe said.

NSW Minister for Better Regulation and Fair Trading Anoulack Chanthivong said the state was working with state and federal governments. 

Fair Trading is working with emergency services to inspect products on the market today but consumers buying cheap products online should exercise caution,” he said.

Since March 2023, NSW Fair Trading has conducted inspections of 195 retailers selling electrical articles, including 39 models of e-bikes and e-scooters. 

“While securing a national approach will take time, NSW is moving ahead with proactive compliance programs and we’re looking at ways to increase education about the safe use of these products,” Mr Chanthivong added. 

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