E-bike & e-scooter battery fires at work: a responsible person's guide
Staff are wheeling e-bikes and e-scooters into work — and charging them at their desks. The lithium-ion battery that powers them can fail without warning and burn ferociously. As the responsible person, that's now your risk to manage.
Why lithium batteries are different
A damaged, faulty or overcharged lithium-ion cell can go into thermal runaway — a self-feeding chain reaction that produces an intense fire, toxic gases and sometimes an explosion, often with very little warning. You can't put it out with a normal extinguisher. Since 2020, fires linked to these batteries have caused around 10 deaths and 190 injuries in the UK, and the London Fire Brigade recorded a related fire roughly every two days in 2023. Most have been in homes — but the workplace risk is climbing as commuting by e-bike and e-scooter grows.
Your legal duty
Under Article 9 of the Fire Safety Order, your fire risk assessment must be "suitable and sufficient" — and that now explicitly includes lithium-ion batteries: how they're charged, how they're stored, damaged cells, and devices staff bring in themselves. The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 adds the general duty to keep people safe. This isn't optional or future-tense; if your assessment is silent on batteries, it's out of date.
The single most important control
Keep charging and storage off escape routes and out of communal areas. A battery fire on the only way out doesn't just start a fire — it blocks everyone's exit. Article 14 requires escape routes to be kept clear, and a charging e-scooter in a corridor fails that test on its own.
Practical controls for the workplace
- Designate storage. Ideally a secure, external area — a bike shed with proper charging facilities — not the office floor and never a corridor.
- Ban desk charging. It's the most common bad habit, and it puts a potential fire right among people and paper.
- Approved chargers only. Manufacturer-approved and matched to the device. Counterfeit chargers are a leading cause — Electrical Safety First found dozens of dangerous chargers on sale online.
- PAT test charging equipment, especially anything staff bring in.
- Never charge unattended or overnight. Unplug when finished, don't cover chargers, and don't overload sockets or run power through coiled extension leads.
- Inspect for damage. Dents, swelling, leaks, heat or odd smells mean stop — don't charge or use it, and replace it.
- Buy reputable, dispose responsibly. Check UK/EU standards, register products for recalls, and never bin batteries in general waste — they start fires in bin lorries and recycling centres.
Swelling or bulging, heat, hissing or crackling, an unusual chemical smell, or smoke. If you see any of these — move people away and don't touch it.
If one catches fire
Do not try to fight it. Get out, stay out, call 999. Water won't stop thermal runaway, and the smoke is highly toxic. Your job is evacuation, not firefighting.
Put it in policy — and train people
Write a short lithium-battery and charging policy, communicate it to staff, and sign your charging areas. Then review your fire risk assessment so it reflects the control measures you've put in place. (Legislation is tightening too — the proposed Safety of Electric-Powered Micromobility Vehicles and Lithium Batteries Bill points where this is heading.) The risk is manageable — but only if someone owns it. See our guide to fire risk assessment for where this fits in.
See it in the game
The Care Home and 'Your Home' buildings in Hazard Hunt include e-bike and scooter charging hazards to spot — and the Fire Spread sim shows exactly why a blocked escape route is so dangerous.
Play Hazard Hunt →This guide is for learning and applies to England & Wales. Always work from the current regulations, standards and your own fire risk assessment; Scotland and Northern Ireland have equivalent regimes.