Three people fled their apartment after an electric scooter caught fire after allegedly being left to charge overnight. The incident occurred yesterday at 3.50am at a 10th-floor apartment in Block 230, Choa Chu Kang Central 1.
A woman who lives in the unit told the Chinese daily that she was sleeping when she heard a loud explosion before she noticed a burning smell from one of the rooms. When she investigated, she realised that the battery charger of the e-scooter inside was on fire.
Singapore Civil Defense Force (SCDF) officers who responded to the fire had to forcibly enter the apartment and put out the fire which was started by a portable battery charger attached to the e-scooter. No one was injured.
The SCDF has previously reported that “there were 32 incidents of fire involving the batteries of electric bicycles from 2008 – 2015, about 90.6% of the fires occurring in the last 4 years. 50.0% of the fires occurred while the batteries were being charged while 31.3% of the fires occurred when the electric bicycles were stationary and not in use.”