Fire Caused By Charging E-Bike Kills British Mum And Two Children, Experts Warn Against ‘Cheap Chargers’

NEW YORK (VINnews) — A ‘devastating’ house fire apparently caused by a charging electric bike claimed the lives of a British mother and her two children and critically injured her partner, according to a report by the Daily Mail.

Gemma Germeney, 31, her son Oliver Peden, four, and daughter Lilly Peden, eight, died after the blaze at the family’s two-storey maisonette in Cambridge, England on Friday.

A man in his 30s who escaped the burning building and remains in a critical condition in hospital is believed to be Ms Germeney’s partner Scott Peden.

Oliver and Lily Peden

Mr Peden, the father of the two children, has been branded a ‘hero’ after neighbours said he tried to rescue his family when the fire broke out at around 1am.

Following an investigation, Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue today said it had concluded that ‘the most probable cause was an e-bike that was charging.’

The force’s Area Commander Stuart Smith said: ‘Fire service and specialist fire investigators, together with police forensic teams and a fire dog, have spent the weekend carrying out a thorough investigation of the maisonette.

‘A fire investigation looks for the most probable cause and in this case, we believe that to be an electric bike that was charging.

‘We know e-bikes and e-scooters are popular modes of personal transport at the moment and we are urging anyone with one to be aware of the potential risks and follow simple precautions to reduce the likelihood of the batteries overheating.’

The two family dogs are also said to have perished in the inferno.

Watch the moment e-scooter explode into flames in London kitchen pic.twitter.com/BPBUb3g0uo

— Evening Standard (@standardnews) May 18, 2023

It comes after experts last month issued a warning over buying cheap electric bikes or scooters online, as well as cheaper chargers.

When lithium battery-powered machines overheat, they can burn uncontrollably at over 600 C°, with devastating consequences.

In 2021, the residents of a small Tel Aviv apartment block were woken up at 2am to an enormous bang and the smell of smoke.

Fearing they had been hit by a rocket from Gaza, the residents ran to the stairwell to take cover when they noticed the source of the fire was actually coming from inside the building.

‘We smelt something acrid, like burning plastic and then we heard the screams’ recalls Eitan Goldstein.

‘We knocked on the door of the apartment where the screams were coming from and a man opened up and explained what had happened.

‘The e-bike lithium battery had been plugged in overnight to charge and it exploded, the apartment was ruined.”

In the first five months of 2023 alone, the London Fire Brigade has on average been called out to a fire caused by overheating lithium batteries once every two days.

In January, an e-bike left charging overnight ignited at the home of Rab Shearer, 60, in Litherland, Merseyside. Mr Shearer was killed in the blaze while his son Gary, 23, died in hospital two weeks later after trying in vain to save him.

On New Year’s Day, Sofia Duarte, 21, was asleep at her home in Old Kent Road, south London, when a modified electric bike in her flat exploded.

The daughter of Portuguese immigrants, who enjoyed dancing, spending time with friends and travelling, is believed to be the first person to be killed in London due to an e-bike fire.

Giuseppe Capanna, a product safety engineer at electricalsafetyfirst, has been investigating the spate of e-vehicle fires across the UK.

He told MailOnline: ‘With e-vehicles people can easily buy them from online retailers and be completely unaware they don’t meet any of the safety standards.’