QUOTE: The FRNSW Fire Investigation and Research Unit with police forensic experts found that an incompatible charger was powering the battery in the bedroom at the time. Investigators believe the battery overheated while it was being charged, which was the likely cause of the fire.

Tragic. But batteries are the future

batteries are the future

NSW Fire Brigade is aware of that and is now attending one fire every day as a result, however its message is: Use the Correct Charger.

Far too many of these Uber and similar riders have NO CLUE about that, and probably never will have.

Added to that, in this case, reportedly was a compete lack of smoke alarms in a share house.

QUOTE: NSW firefighters battling more than one lithium-ion battery fire a day this month [Feb 2025], fire commissioner fears more fatalities

The issue with how the batteries are used and abused is going to be a deciding factor in future incident numbers.

This matter is typical of how things are in Guildford and surrounding areas. The house is share accomodation, the battery and its bike are most likely owned by a food delivery driver. More often I am seeing these bikes with batteries that are obviously not what came with the bike and are often larger than car batteries, so the rider can get more food deliveries done between charges. This bloke's four flatmates are probably in the same kind of work. It is already widely known that lithium-cobalt batteries are unstable at the best of times, despite having one of the best energy densities available. Yet some owners still decide to take the risk and beef up the batteries on their bikes and purchase larger chargers to recharge the modified batteries faster.

Sorry, but this cannot be the future. A society that has, for the best part, rejected smoking as a healthy pastime shouldn't be passing this off as the future and something needs to be done about it. With the quality of leadership from our governments - or the lack of it - what we expect and what we get will be two different things but if governments do not act, battery fires will wind up killing more people than asbestos has.

Whilst there is less risk of such a fire starting in an electric car, my workplace has already done something about this and banned charging of electric cars in the carpark under the building, and given that I am both the site engineer and the chief fire warden for the establishment, this is a policy I support wholeheartedly. I do not want a fire in a confined space that cannot be extinguished happening on my watch. To make sure that rule is observed, all powerpoints in the carpark have been put on key switches, with maintenance staff the only ones with keys that fit. Whatever the future may be, this is called risk management.

Maybe, like the chemical plant I worked in, there was a deluge system in place in the main work area*. Perhaps one of those over the top of the cars on charge, might be an expensive idea.

Possibly unconfirmed but reported to take 600US gallons per minute for 43minutes to tame a burning Tesla.

*Work area class one Zone 1

On top of all that, they can explode in the firefighters' faces:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDeFU7DJy4k

I read somewhere over the weekend that they have banned the sale of the Cybertruck in the mother country. I didn't have the time to read up on why though.

I read somewhere over the weekend that they have banned the sale of the Cybertruck in the mother country. I didn't have the time to read up on why though.

QUOTE: The one [EU] directive preventing Tesla from bringing the Cybertruck to the country is the law that bans the sale of passenger vehicles that "exhibit sharp external projections." The existence of this law was revealed by none other than Tesla's VP of Vehicle engineering, Lars Maravy.

My comment about the future is sarcasm. There is no way this brainwashing of the public can continue. When are insurance companies going to start denying claims. Lets not even consider the way raw materials are mined

I have solar here but there is no way I will even entertain getting batteries. Power tools are charged in the workshop on weekends while I'm close by. Phone 2 foot from my head at night is worrying enough.


Brad, what are your thoughts on lithium powered UPS in server rooms? We have banned them on our sites.

A better Lithium battery is the Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiPO4) but lacks the energy density of the LiOn.

They are quite stable and I have 200Ah in my motorhome a 48V 10Kwh battery for my home setup and at the Community Radio Station I volunteer at we have a 24V x 240Ah LiPO4 UPS recharged as needed by solar as first choice OR if NONE an AC Mains charger all controlled by a Victron Battery Monitor.

All works brilliantly and basically the station runs on Solar all day pretty much and during the night after 10pm when NO Presenters are on air it takes a wee bit from the mains to maintain the bank at around 70% s SOC (State Of Charge) so in the event the AC Mains goes OFF we have nearly maximum run time with NO Solar.

Never seen a sign or of overheating in any of these setups.

When are insurance companies going to start denying claims.

Yep, new policies (and updates to existing policies) excluding Li-ion-anything from coverage.

lithium powered UPS in server rooms?

Very good question.

I see some insurance CEO has been shot dead in the US. We wait to see the motive.

However, Insurance companies are going hell for leather in wiping out country shows and functions that could be described as a country fair, by inventing risk and using that to promote exorbitant prices which no one can afford. A local event will take over 20K to stage and over a quarter of that is insurance.

How pathetic it has become: I got a letter telling me they would not insure me against floods. The new house is around a foot (300mm) above its predecessor and there is no record from any of the family of a house flood here since they took up the selection in 1883.

Greed has no bounds.

Of course if they get to the point of insuring nothing: That is the end of them, as they no longer fit the definition for underwriting.

Server backup power uses lead-acid accumulators because they best handle being floated.

Lead? Did I say lead?

Wash my mouth out!!

How long before the greenies discover lead-acid batteries and ban them?

LiFePO4 does not equal the BoOM! batteries, it is a completely different chemistry.

The batteries that blow up are Lithium Cobalt - two elements that do not like each other that much.

LiFePO4 = Lithium Iron Phosphate - completely safe and quite commonplace in caravan and camping applications.

Lithium Cobalt has a higher energy density which is why it is a popular choice for electric cars and mobile phones - two applications where range and uptime is critical. But its downside is that when poorly manufactured or wrongly charged it can spontaneously combust.

At about 16:45 today a bike with a you know what battery caught fire on the 1602 up Belgrave train. 200 passengers safely evacuated at Union Station (Surrey Hills). Overhead power de-energised. Images show thick black smoke billowing out from the train.

Most likely a food delivery bike, which currently are infesting the train network. No doubt you will get to see this on the news.

Transport for London (TfL) have long banned these bikes on its trains. About time it happens here.

Situation still ongoing at time of posting. This is going to stuff up plans for those going to the two footy matches in the city tonight.