E-bike and e-scooter battery fires: managing the risk in communal areas

Storage and disposal beyond charging

The risk does not end when charging stops — damaged, swollen or end-of-life batteries stored anywhere in the building, including bin stores, present an ongoing hazard, and lithium-ion batteries must never go into general waste or standard recycling because of the risk of puncture during collection and processing. A punctured cell in a bin lorry compactor is a well-documented cause of vehicle and depot fires, quite separate from the risk inside the building itself.

• Direct residents to dedicated battery take-back or recycling points rather than general waste.
• Add clear signage to communal bin stores stating that damaged batteries are not general waste.
• Treat any swollen, hot, or physically damaged battery as an immediate hazard, not something to store until convenient to dispose of.
• Keep a record of any battery-related incidents or near-misses reported by residents or staff.

How this shows up in a fire risk assessment

Assessors now specifically ask about and record e-bike and e-scooter charging arrangements as a standalone line item, rather than folding it into a generic 'housekeeping' comment, reflecting how London Fire Brigade and most insurers now view the risk. On site, this means an assessor is actively looking for evidence of the behaviour, not just asking whether a policy exists on paper.

• Is there evidence of e-bike/e-scooter charging in communal areas at the time of the visit (cables run under doors, bikes parked in stairwells)?
• Is there a written policy communicated to residents, and is it actually being followed rather than just posted?
• Is there any designated safe charging provision, and if so is it appropriately fire-separated from escape routes?
• Has the building or managing agent had any reported incidents, near-misses or fire brigade attendances relating to batteries?
• Are residents storing damaged or unused batteries anywhere in the common parts, including bin and cycle stores?

What managing agents and freeholders can practically do now

Even without capital works to create a dedicated charging area, several low-cost steps meaningfully reduce the risk: issuing a clear written policy to all residents, physically removing bikes and scooters found in escape routes with a documented process, working with residents to identify and support genuine alternative charging arrangements, and making sure the fire risk assessment explicitly covers this hazard so it is reviewed, not forgotten, at the next assessment. None of these require significant budget, and all of them are things a licensing officer or enforcing authority would expect to see evidence of if asked.

Fire extinguishers and lithium-ion fires

It is worth being clear with residents and staff that a standard water or foam extinguisher is unlikely to fully extinguish a lithium-ion battery fire, because the reaction can continue internally within the cell regardless of surface cooling. The standard advice from fire and rescue services is to evacuate rather than attempt to fight a battery fire directly, call 999 immediately, and warn others in the building — this is a different response to how most people are taught to react to a small kitchen fire, and it is worth stating explicitly in resident-facing guidance rather than assuming it is obvious.

Working with leaseholders and residents rather than against them

The most effective policies we see are developed with some input from residents rather than imposed purely top-down, because e-bikes and e-scooters are often a genuine transport necessity, particularly for delivery workers, and a policy perceived as punitive without an alternative tends to be quietly ignored. Consultation does not need to be extensive — even a short residents' notice explaining the reasoning, alongside the practical alternative, tends to achieve better long-term compliance than an enforcement-only approach. In our experience, buildings that involve a handful of residents in drafting the wording of the policy, rather than issuing it purely from the management office, tend to see faster and more durable compliance, because the residents most likely to push back have already had their concerns heard and, where reasonable, addressed before the policy is enforced against anyone.

Insurance and buildings cover implications

Buildings insurers have become noticeably more attentive to e-bike and e-scooter charging risk in communal areas over the past few years, and some now ask specific questions about it at renewal or when settling a claim connected to a fire of unknown or electrical origin. A managing agent who cannot demonstrate any written policy, any record of enforcement action, or any consideration of the risk in the current fire risk assessment may find this used against the building at renewal, in the form of increased premiums, additional policy conditions, or in the worst case a declined claim if an insurer can show the risk was known about and not addressed. This is a further practical reason, beyond the safety case itself, to treat the issue as a standing agenda item for the building rather than something raised once and then left.

• Keep dated records of the policy being issued and reissued to residents, not just a single historic notice.
• Record any enforcement action taken, including bikes removed from escape routes and the date this happened.
• Note the hazard specifically in the fire risk assessment and any subsequent review, rather than relying on memory of a verbal conversation.
• Ask the buildings insurer directly whether they have any specific requirements or preferred wording for an e-bike policy at the next renewal.

New-build and refurbishment considerations

Where a building is being newly constructed or substantially refurbished, this is the best opportunity to design out much of the underlying problem rather than relying on a policy to manage it after the fact. A dedicated, fire-separated and ventilated cycle and e-mobility store at ground or basement level, positioned away from the main escape route and ideally with its own detection and, where justified by scale, suppression, removes much of the pressure that otherwise pushes charging into corridors and stairwells. Developers and design teams increasingly treat this as a standard consideration alongside conventional cycle storage, reflecting both regulatory direction of travel and the practical reality that residents will charge devices somewhere, whether or not the building has planned for it.