In 2020 we attended six fires caused by Lithium-ion batteries, with figures rising year-on-year, Hampshire and Isle of Wight firefighters tackled 43 Lithium-ion blazes last year.
2025 also saw us record our highest number of callouts to fires caused by charging electrical products, and we also saw the most incidents involving e-bikes and e-scooters that we’d ever experienced.
We’ve responded to multiple Lithium-ion battery blazes in recent months, which have resulted in significant property damage, which you can see below.
These callouts include a charging battery which exploded through the walls of a house in Portsmouth, a charging unit sparking a shed fire on the Hampshire-Wiltshire border, as well as a number of fires involving e-bikes in areas such as Fleet, Southampton, Aldershot and Andover.
Follow our top tips around buying, using, storing, charging and disposing of your lithium-ion products:
- Buy from reputable retailers.
- Ensure the product is certified by checking for a UKCA or CE symbol.
- Register products online to be informed of product recalls.
- Use the charger your device came with, or purchase a replacement designed for the product from the same manufacturer.
For more guidance on Lithium-ion battery product safety, check out our dedicated page.
This Electrical Fire Safety Week (2-9 Feb), we ask that you check your products for danger signs, and ensure you’re using and charging them correctly.
The focus for this year’s Electrical Fire Safety Week is on encouraging people to check and test their smoke alarms regularly – the small sound you’ve been ignoring could be the very thing that could one day save your life.
Hampshire and Isle of Wight ranks sixth in the UK’s smoke alarm blackspot table according to Electrical Safety First’s survey, so ensuring your home has adequate smoke detection is vital.
The same survey found only 35% of Southampton households test their smoke alarms monthly, with other towns and cities in our area scoring lower.
Giuseppe Capanna, product safety engineer at Electrical Fire Safety First, said:
“Every second counts when it comes to escaping a fire in your home and smoke alarms can be the life-saving gadget that proves to be the difference between life and death. But they need to be maintained to ensure they operate properly.
“People living in a property without a smoke alarm altogether are at a significantly higher risk of being serious injured or worse, losing their life, in the event a fire grips their home.
“Many people affected by fire often tell us they simply didn’t think something like this could happen to them, which is why it’s so important households take just a few seconds to test their smoke alarm.”
