Councillor raises fire concerns amid surge in ebike use across West Lothian

The surging popularity of ebikes and scooters could be putting more people at risk from fires, a councillor has warned.

Bathgate’s Willie Boyle fears that people opting for cheaper alternatives in replacement batteries heightens the risk.

And he highlighted the fire risks of ebikes being stored and charged in common areas of blocks of flats.

Councillor Boyle first raised concerns about rubbish and bikes stored in stairwells after coming across it repeatedly while out leafleting for the 2022 council election.

He told a meeting of the Bathgate Local Area Committee this month: “It’s adding to my concerns about bikes being stored in stairwells. We’re seeing a lot more stories in the national news about electric bikes and the fire risks.”

Councillor Boyle said he had no problem with using electric bikes but said it was human nature that people would opt for cheap replacement batteries, despite all advice against using them.

Bathgate fire station commander Alasdair Fowlie told the committee that the SFRS could only advise householders about keeping a clear path in stairwells.

The SFRS also offers advice on only buying the recommended lithium ion batteries and chargers for devices from mobile phones to ebikes, rather than cheaper options.

Cmdr Fowlie said: “We can only warn people of the dangers. It would be a government led thing to stop people buying inappropriate batteries and chargers.

“It’s up to the owners of buildings to manage and maintain. We can absolutely give advice to keep a clear path and not to store rubbish and bikes in stairwells.”

Along with the growth on sales of ebikes there’s been a surge in ebike fires. London Fire Brigade (LFB) reported that in the first three months of last year it had been called to an ebike or escooter fire once every two days – a 60 per cent increase compared to the same period in 2022.

Electrical Safety First a UK charity produced a safety report-.Battery Breakdown – on escooter and ebike fires. It listed three main external conditions that contribute battery failure.

These are: Electrical- typically due to overcharge or over-discharge. It can be due to incompatibility between the battery and charger, a sub-standard battery management system or an external short circuit; Mechanical- triggered by crushing or penetration of a battery with an external object, or an extreme or repeated impact and Thermal- extreme high- and low-temperature environments.

When Councillor Boyle first raised the issue of rubbish in stairwells in June 2022, a senior fire officer explained that before the formation of the fire service into one body, the former Lothian and Borders Brigade did have the power to police and enforce tidy stairwells in blocks of flats. The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service no longer has the power of enforcement.

The fire officer added: “ If we identify combustibles in common stairwells we will pass that on to the housing department to expedite their removal. We would also leaflet all the addresses in that stair to highlight the dangers of storing combustibles in a common stair.”