A father says he lost his home in ‘only 10 minutes’ after his son’s converted second-hand e-bike battery exploded.
Don Hettiarachchi, 49, had returned from a night shift as a bus driver when he heard the smoke alarm blare at about 10am on September 20.
Both stories of his terraced house in New Malden, a suburb of south-west London, were engulfed by flames and clogged with smoke.
By 11.52am, 25 firefighters had the blaze on Muybridge Way under control. But the ground and first floor were gutted, Don told Metro.
The conservatory was ‘melted’, the downstairs bathroom, living room and kitchen destroyed, the upstairs three bedrooms scorched and their belongings damaged.
The cause was the lithium battery of Don’s son’s converted e-bike he bought from a friend failing. It had been charging for five hours in the conservatory.
‘I heard the fire alarm going off and thought it was the neighbour’s, so I looked out of the bedroom window and saw my neighbours running around,’ Don said.
‘I came downstairs – that’s when I realised it was my fire alarm. I looked through the living room and it was covered in black smoke.
‘My wife and eldest son ran out and were looking for our little cat – she had escaped and was hiding under one of the cars.
‘Luckily no one was hurt, that’s the main thing. Our neighbours had already phoned the fire brigade.
‘It took only 10 minutes to take my whole house, that lithium battery.’
The council provided the family with emergency accommodation as their home was ‘uninhabitable’ that same night. Following a check-up from a doctor, Don and his wife took a month off work due to the stress.
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Adding to his list of woes, Don’s home insurance expired over the summer. His father-in-law fell ill and between arranging doctors for him in Sri Lanka, ‘I didn’t even think about renewing my policy,’ he said.
The family moved back into their partly rebuilt home last week. But images of flames and smoke are hard to forget.
‘When I see the signs of this fire, it’s very tough,’ Don says. ‘We are getting there slowly but my wife is still in shock. My son feels guilty about it, I feel so sorry for him.’
Nearly one in 10 Britons own an e-bike after becoming the go-to for delivery drivers zipping through the rain and environmentally conscious commuters over the coronavirus pandemic.
And this number is expected to rise as one in five Londoners say they’re keen to buy an e-bike on Black Friday or Cyber Monday, a new survey by the charity Electrical Safety First and the London Fire Brigade found.
One in five of the 2,001 surveyed are hoping to get a deal on an e-bike, e-scooter or e-bike conversion kit, which can make regular pedal bikes electrically powered like the one Don’s son had.
Of them, more than half are hoping to buy the device second-hand on online marketplaces this Friday.
But this e-bike boom is coming at a cost. Eleven people were killed in fires caused by the devices in 2023, while the London Fire Brigade has warned that e-bikes and e-scooters are now the fastest-growing fire risk in the capital.
E-bike blazes can be especially deadly as they’re often left to charge overnight in hallways, limiting escape routes, and their batteries can overheat with little to no warning.
Inside lithium batteries are tiny cells smooshed together. These ions zip around and generate electricity but if they create a ‘thermal runway’, heat can develop at an unstoppable rate.
This can happen if the wrong charger is used, a battery has a defect or an unsafe conversion kit has been used, Lesley Rudd, chief executive of Electrical Safety First, warned to Metro.
‘There are reputable manufacturers out there selling high quality and safe e-bikes and conversion kits and we urge shoppers looking to bag a bargain to stick with them to ensure what they are bringing into their home is safe,’ she said.
‘These devices can be good purchases when they are manufactured to a high standard but pose a significant risk if they are substandard or charged incorrectly at home.’
Richard Field, of the London Fire Brigade, agreed. ‘We understand that people are trying to save money, but if you spot a deal this week that looks too good to be true, it probably is,’ he added.
‘When shopping from third-party sellers via online marketplaces or auction sites, there is not the same level of regulation of products for e-bikes and e-scooters compared to buying from high street shops, so you can’t be confident that your purchases will meet the correct safety standards.’
As part of the brigade’s #ChargeSafe campaign, Field stressed that consumers should only buy ‘high quality’ products from ‘reputable’ sellers.
For Don, he says he is grateful that the local community came together to support his family. From the local school, church and college to her wife’s employer, John Lewis.
Don’s daughter, Nikil, 17, has started a GoFundMe page to help cover the £25,000 needed to rebuild their life, with more than £4,100 raised so far.
‘My advice is if a shopper can avoid an electric bike or an electric scooter and go for a manual one instead this Black Friday, they should,’ Don says.
‘We will never buy an electric bike ever again.’
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