‘An epidemic’: investigation finds 556 e-bike fires in London in three years, six dead

What happened

On 18 April 2026, independent London outlet The Londoner published a long-form investigation into the human cost of e-bike and e-scooter battery fires in the capital, based on London Fire Brigade incident data and interviews with firefighters, NHS staff, and the families of people who have died. The piece opens with firefighter Steve Ladley's account of a fire in Catford just before Christmas 2024 that engulfed a three-storey house within minutes and required a rooftop rescue.

The investigation puts the toll at 556 e-bike and e-scooter fires across London in the three years to early 2026, with 206 in 2025 alone — up from just 31 five years earlier. It reports six deaths linked to these fires, and states that lithium-ion battery fires of this kind can burn as high as roughly 700°C, spread within seconds, and release toxic gases. As with London Fire Brigade's own figures, the investigation stresses that none of the six people who died owned the e-bike or scooter involved.

A note on the numbers, because it matters: this is a journalistic figure, not an official London Fire Brigade statistic, and its fatality count of six is one higher than the Brigade's own published "five since 2023" figure. That most likely reflects a slightly different time window or dataset cut-off rather than a contradiction. We cite both figures with their own attribution rather than merging them into one number.

Our read on it

The investigation's most striking framing is that this is a household and bystander risk, not just a rider risk — most of the people who died were not the ones who bought or charged the device. That changes how the story should be read: fire safety around charging batteries in shared and rented housing is everyone's concern, not only that of e-bike and e-scooter owners.

Where a fire like this happens in a rented property, or is linked to a specific faulty product, the people affected are entitled to ask who was responsible. That is a question for the facts of each case, properly assessed, and not something aggregate data can answer on its own.

Read more

• Original investigation: The Londoner, "E-bike fires are killing Londoners. Nothing can put them out" (18 April 2026, by Andrew Kersley)
• The official London Fire Brigade data referenced in the piece: our sourced statistics tracker
• If you want to understand who might be responsible after a fire: lithium battery fire compensation — are you eligible?

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