22103 - E-Scooter & Lithium Battery Fires

Ref: FOI/22103 

RE: FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 REQUEST 

I am writing to confirm that the West Midlands Fire Service has now completed its search for the information you requested further to your freedom of information request. 

Please find below a summary of our findings. 

Request 

Under Freedom of Information, I would be grateful if you're able to provide the number of fires for the below.  If you don't have a category for these, it would be great if you're able to use a free text search. 
 
Number of fires involving e-scooters, broken down by year 2020, 2021 and 2022 to date. 
Number of fatalities / casualties resulting from the above, broken down by year. 

Reply 

Please find a response to this already published on our website: 

E-Scooter and E-Bike Fires

Since we released this information in April 2022, there have been a further 9 incidents, three of which resulted in injury.  

As mentioned, neither are yet classed as a property or vehicle type, so we have searched the logs using keywords (e.g. e-scooter, e-bike, electric scooter, electric bike etc) and therefore the results are dependent on whether these key words are mentioned.   

 
Request 

 
Number of lithium battery fires of any kind, broken down by 2020, 2021 and 2022 to date. 
Number of fatalities / casualties resulting from the above, broken down by year. 

Reply 

For lithium batteries: 

2020: 14 incidents, one injured casualty 

2021: 14 incidents, five injured casualties 

2022 to date: eight incidents, three injured casualties 

Please note there is one incident which appears in both e-bike and battery above. 

If you have any queries about this Freedom of Information request, please contact us. Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications.  

For service complaints, issues or comments regarding this request please contact The Public Relations Department, West Midlands Fire Service, 99 Vauxhall Road, Birmingham, B7 4HW 

Further information concerning Freedom of Information requests can be found on the Information Commissioner website at either the following link: https://ico.org.uk/ or at Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, SK9 5AF.