Growing safety concerns over lithium-ion batteries after four fires in one day in NSW

Lithium-ion batteries sparked four fires in just one day in New South Wales this week, amid growing concern over the rise in battery-related blazes.

One man was taken to hospital and a 10-storey apartment block was evacuated after an ebike battery exploded in Bankstown in Sydney’s south-west on Thursday, while firefighters also responded to blazes set off by an electric vehicle charging station in Berkeley, a garden hedger in Lake Macquarie, and a loose battery in a garbage truck passing through Silverwater.

Fire and Rescue NSW has tackled 63 fires from lithium-ion batteries in 2024, at an average of nearly six a week. Seven people have been injured and two have died.

Lithium-ion batteries store more energy than AA or AAA batteries, according to the University of NSW electrical engineering expert Dr Matthew Priestley, but they are at risk of exploding if overcharged, overheated, damaged, or poorly made.

“If you heat up the inside of a lithium-ion battery past a certain temperature, it becomes self-sustaining and it starts to get hotter and hotter very quickly,” he said.

The state is seeing more fires because so many appliances use some kind of lithium-ion battery, the Fire and Rescue NSW superintendent, Adam

Dewberry, said.

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“These batteries are everywhere, they’re in phones, computers, everything,” he said.

“We are seeing an increasing number in micro-mobility, the ebikes and e-scooters.”

E-transport devices were responsible for half of all injuries caused by lithium-ion battery fires in NSW in 2023, in part due to faulty chargers or amateur modifications.

“People are modifying these devices to make them go longer or faster. We don’t want people to do that … fires are igniting as a result,” Dewberry said.

Another risk comes from damage to the batteries themselves, a possible cause of Thursday’s garden hedger blaze.

“You can’t throw these batteries around,” Priestley said.

“If you drop your power tool off the roof, you’ve probably damaged the battery … it’s probably better to get that battery checked by the manufacturer before using it again.”

Once compromised, the devices are prone to breaking down and catching fire without notice. Fire and Rescue has warned households to dispose of damaged batteries at approved recycling centres, to avoid setting fire to garbage trucks.

While damaged batteries are part of the problem, some experts say a lack of regulation and compliance is also leaving consumers vulnerable.

One in six electrical goods retailers inspected by NSW Fair Trading in the last year had sold battery chargers that did not meet regulatory standards.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission last year called for improved national regulation and testing in the sector, but testing facilities take time and money to deliver.

“There’s been a real lack of development of testing facilities for any battery and electrical goods coming into Australia, which is very concerning,” Priestley said.