High-Rise Buildings: When an Emerging Risk Becomes a Fire Safety Planning Responsibility

There is now enough evidence, incident data, and response experience to recognize that lithium-ion battery fires involving e-bikes and e-scooters are no longer an emerging concern for high-rise buildings.

They are a foreseeable building risk.

Two recent incidents reinforce the point.

In Toronto, three people were transported to hospital following a lithium-ion battery fire involving an e-bike in a Scarborough high-rise. Toronto Fire Chief Jim Jessop again warned that these fires can spread rapidly, produce toxic smoke, and create serious risks for residents and responding firefighters.

Days later, an e-scooter battery reportedly ignited inside a Boston high-rise apartment, resulting in a two-alarm response, injuries, and the displacement of of dozens of residents.

The purpose of sharing these incidents is not to create fear, nor is it to suggest that every e-bike or e-scooter is unsafe. Certified devices that are properly used, charged, maintained, and stored are generally safe.

The fire safety planning concern is what happens when a battery is damaged, modified, improperly charged, uncertified, or positioned where a fire could compromise a suite exit or common means of egress.

Every high-rise building owner should now be considering whether this foreseeable risk has been adequately addressed within the building’s Fire Safety Plan and supporting procedures.

At a minimum, that discussion should include:

• Where micromobility devices may be stored or charged
• The protection of corridors, exits, and other means of egress
• Resident education on approved batteries, chargers, warning signs, and safe charging practices
• Procedures for damaged, overheating, smoking, or compromised batteries
• Staff training

Your fire safety planning cannot identify every individual device entering a building, but it can however, establish a clear and defensible framework for managing a known risk.

The issue is no longer whether lithium-ion battery fires can occur in high-rise residential buildings, the question is whether building owners have adjusted their planning before one occurs in theirs.

Toronto incident:
https://www.edgelegal.ca/news/three-people-hospitalized-after-e-bike-battery-sparks-fire-in-scarborough-high-rise/

Boston incident:
https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/roxbury-apartment-building-fire-boston-firefighters/3983473/

#FireSafety #HighRiseSafety #LithiumIonBatteries #Micromobility #EmergencyPreparedness #PropertyManagement #FireSafetyPlanning