Firefighters warn of rising lithium ion battery fires as West Midlands launches new safety campaign
After a deadly Coventry house fire and a surge in battery related incidents, West Midlands Fire Service urges safer buying, charging and disposal habits as the festive shopping season begins.
West Midlands Fire Service has launched a new public safety campaign in response to what firefighters say is a fast increasing fire risk in UK homes: lithium ion batteries.
The Fast. Fierce. Fatal. campaign follows a tragic fire in Coventry last year in which two people died after an e-bike that had been converted from a standard pedal bike caught alight. According to WMFS data, incidents involving lithium ion batteries are rising sharply.
Firefighters attended 40 such fires in 2023 and 69 in 2024. By 31 October this year they had already attended 65, more than twice the number recorded during the same period in 2023. E-bike incidents have also risen from six in 2023 to 13 in 2024 and 16 so far in 2025.
Station Commander Matt Ling from the Fire Investigation and Prevention section says the behaviour of these fires makes them particularly dangerous. He explains that when a lithium ion battery fails it can enter thermal runaway, Matt Ling says this leads to “a very, very fast developing fire at extremely high temperatures that also produces toxic and flammable gases.”
These fires can develop within seconds. Matt says people may have seen videos of batteries going into thermal runaway and that “once they start to go into thermal runaway, that heat that is generated as part of that chemical process propagates the reaction quicker and quicker and quicker.” He describes temperatures in homes affected as “potentially in excess of 1000 degrees.”
Attending these incidents places firefighters in hazardous conditions. Matt says they “present quite a risk to our firefighters in that the speed with which the fire develops” and the temperatures involved make them “a very uncomfortable place for a firefighter to be and not without any additional risk.” He explains that even after extinguishing the fire there can be a danger of reignition because the chemical reaction can continue inside the damaged battery.
Lithium ion batteries are used widely in everyday life in devices such as phones, laptops, scooters and e-bikes. Ling says “modern day life means that we have lithium ion batteries in multiple devices throughout every household in the country.” He emphasises that good quality products carry a very low risk but warns against second hand devices and unregulated online marketplaces.
Another growing concern is incorrect disposal. WMFS has seen more fires starting in recycling plants. Ling says “the majority of these have been attributed to lithium ion batteries being disposed of” in household waste. He urges people to contact their local council for safe recycling sites.
The campaign launch has been timed for the beginning of the Black Friday and Christmas shopping period. Ling says this is because the service wants communities “to be able to purchase their Christmas presents purchased during Black Friday sales in an educated and informed way to ensure that we don’t have substandard lithium ion batteries entering our communities.”
He hopes the campaign encourages people to think more carefully about how they buy and charge these everyday devices. As he puts it, “we’d really, really ask our communities to think about where they’re buying their batteries from” and to follow basic precautions such as using the correct charger, not charging overnight and charging on a hard flat surface.