Montgomery County warns of fires due to lithium-ion batteries

A local fire department is sounding the alarm about a growing danger, one that you may be doing right now and not even know it.

Somewhere in your home, garage or car, there could be an electronic device, tool or even a bike that’s been left on charge so long, its lithium-ion battery is at risk of overheating.

Montgomery County’s fire chief says he’s deeply concerned about the potential for a disastrous increase in fires caused by lithium-ion batteries, which are in nearly everything: phones, laptops, toys, cordless tools and more.

“What we experience in the fire service is the days and times when these devices get damaged, the activities when these devices go into thermal overload or have a malfunction event, where an extreme amount of energy is released very, very rapidly,” Chief Scott Goldstein said. 

For instance, if you have an electric bike and park it on your porch or in a garage when you get home, if it catches fire while charging, it could be blocking an exit.

A 2022 fire in an apartment at a Silver Spring, Maryland, is believed to have been started by an e-bike battery.

At the time, Montgomery County fire tweeted a warning and an image of what damage could look like in a similar incident.

E-bike batteries are also suspected as the cause of a tragic fire that killed four people in New York Tuesday morning.

Investigators believe the fire started in the ground floor of a bike shop and spread to the apartments upstairs.

"They're seeing fires relating to lithium-ion scooters and batteries, causing an increase in fire fatalities in New York City, on a high frequency," Goldstein said.

And it’s not just about where the machines are stored or charged. 

In April, Montgomery County officials issued an urgent warning that improperly disposed lithium-ion batteries were causing fires in trash trucks across the U.S.