Firefighters face growing challenges presented by electric vehicles and need new training and equipment, the leader of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) has said.
Steve Wright, who took over as general secretary of the FBU earlier this year, said illegally-modified e-bikes and scooters were a particular concern.
The Office for Product Safety recently reported that there were at least 211 e-scooter and e-bike fires last year, including five that caused fatalities. The figure in 2020 was 26.
Natasha Johnson-Mall tragically lost her life aged just 27 in a fire sparked by an e-bike last November. Her partner, Karlo Bogdan, 24, and their two dogs also perished in the devastating blaze at their Coventry home, caused after a battery Karlo had installed on the e-bike burst into flames.
The West Midlands Fire Service reported that the fire began when the battery caught fire and “rapidly escalated into an intense blaze”.
“The battery that we believe Karlo had purchased was subject to a product recall before he purchased it due to… other fires that have happened nationally,” said fire investigation officer Annette Carrington. “It’s obvious that this risk was unknown to Karlo.”
An e-bike battery bursts into flames under controlled conditions (Photo: Electrical Safety First)The unique dangers of lithium-ion battery fires
Most of the e-bike and e-scooter fires reported last year were in London, and the true national total is certain to be higher since it is based on voluntary reporting by regional brigades.
“It seems like a lot of people are buying scooters cheaper, and actually they are not regulated, and then they are storing them in high-rise blocks of flats,” FBU leader Wright told The i Paper.
The fire brigade union chief said traditional methods were ineffective against lithium-ion battery fires and that further research – and new equipment and training – was needed.
“I think our equipment needs to keep pace with the advances in technology. So also the training of firefighters that’s been cut over the years,” he said.
“Cars are more advanced, and lithium-ion battery risks are going up. There is no way of extinguishing a lithium-ion battery in a motor vehicle. Water will not put that out.”
There has been a spike in fires caused by lithium-ion batteries, which are often found on e-bikes (Photo: Getty Images)Why are lithium-ion battery fires so dangerous?
Lithium-ion battery fires are challenging to extinguish due to their unique characteristics.
Internal chemical reactions within them can sustain combustion even without external oxygen, as the battery itself generates oxygen during thermal runaway.
This process, where heat triggers further heat-generating reactions, can lead to rapid temperature increases, potentially causing explosions or the release of flammable gases, such as hydrogen, methane, and ethylene.
These gases can ignite, intensifying the fire, while toxic emissions like carbon monoxide, hydrogen fluoride, and hydrogen chloride pose health risks.
These elements make lithium-ion battery fires more hazardous and difficult to manage compared to fires fuelled by conventional materials.
Specialist fire extinguishers, containing either foam, CO2 or other dry chemicals, can be used to put out a lithium-ion battery fire.
They can also be isolated in a fire-resistant area or container, which can help to limit the fire’s spread and allow it to burn out safely.
Wright said climate change was another factor posing additional risks to firefighters – even as falling investment meant that response times were slowing.
“What has increased is our attendance to climate-related incidents. I know there are climate change deniers in Reform, and I would love to have that argument all day with them because I’ve been on the front line. We’re attending more floods, more wildfires.
“And because we are taking three-and-a-half minutes longer [to respond] compared with the mid-1990s, fires are more developed. The safety of ourselves has been compromised with the safety of members of the public.”
The new union boss has deep roots in the fire service: he followed his father into the job, and his son, Ben, has also joined up. He says the reality of the dangers of the job was brought home to him when his son was on duty at a nearby station the night two firefighters died tackling a blaze at Bicester.
His father died of oesophageal cancer, believed to have been caused by his exposure to contaminants during his career. Wright says he is determined to ensure the link between contaminants and some form of cancer in firefighters is fully recognised in law, as it is in other countries.
“I’ve seen my dad die of cancer. I’ve seen what I’ve been exposed to over 25 years. If I can change what future generations are exposed to, I think that’s what I want to do. That is what keeps me awake at night.”
Union remains aligned with Labour
Wright was the vice-president of the FBU before launching his bid to topple long-term general secretary Matt Wrack. He campaigned on a pledge to return the union to “bread and butter” issues, exploiting discontent over Wrack’s leadership. (Wrack was elected as the general secretary of the NASUWT lecturers’ union last week.)
But the new FBU general secretary is keen to present himself as firmly on the left and says he wants Labour’s conference in Liverpool in September to force Sir Keir Starmer to restore the whip to four MPs kicked out for serial rebellion earlier this month.
“I was with Neil Duncan Jordan [one of the four] at the weekend, and I agreed with him that we will be doing all we can to get the whip restored, and we will bring that up at Labour conference and will continue to keep the pressure up. I’ll be writing to Keir and to Angela Rayner because I think we are losing sight of what they did. Speaking to Neil, he was just representing what his constituents were telling him, and to be suspended for that is an authoritarian attack.”
Despite his unease that Labour is failing to be the “broad church” it should be, Wright says the FBU has recently reaffirmed its affiliation to Labour, and there is no huge appetite to return to the position of the past.
“I think we’re in the right place, and I will applaud the government for some of the work that they are doing on some of the employment rights.”
He is pleased also that it is Rayner’s department – the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government – that now has responsibility for the fire service and not the Home Office.
Does he feel that while Rayner is doing a good job, Starmer isn’t? “It does feel a little bit like that. It does feel like every day they’re chucking challenges our way.”
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