- A video shows an e-scooter bursting into flames inside a home, rapidly engulfing a kitchen.
- The London Fire Brigade said the scooter was charging, and residents had to be re-homed afterwards.
A terrifying video shows an e-scooter exploding while it was charging inside a home in London, England.
The London Fire Brigade shared the CCTV footage on Thursday, calling it "frightening." It said that "no one was seriously hurt" in the incident, but that the residents had to re-homed afterwards.
—London Fire Brigade (@LondonFire) May 18, 2023
The video shows the scooter propped up inside the kitchen of the home, and then exploding, rapidly engulfing the room in flames.
The fire brigade said the scooter was charging in the communal kitchen of a two-storey home in the Brent area of London when its battery exploded.
Dominic Ellis, Deputy Commissioner for the London Fire Brigade, told Sky News that the flames were over 1000 degrees Celsius (1832 degrees Fahrenheit) and that the vapor was "highly toxic."
Ellis said that incidents of this type are becoming more common, and that "once a battery starts to go into thermal runaway a fire develops very quickly and can block escape routes."
The scooter belonged to one of the building's residents, Dell Williams, the fire brigade said.
Williams said that he was "grateful to be alive" and that he spent eight hours in hospital after he inhaled smoke from the fire.
He said he was "shocked" by the incident. "I cheated death," he added.
The fire brigade said that the other residents of the building were not nearby when the fire occurred.
The fire department shared the footage as part of a campaign to get people to charge e-bikes and e-scooters more safely.
It said owners should not store them where an escape route is blocked, and that people should fit smoke alarms in the areas where they charge their devices.