5 taken to hospital after fire, linked to charging e-bike battery, breaks out in Jurong West flat, Latest Singapore News - The New Paper
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5 taken to hospital after fire, linked to charging e-bike battery, breaks out in Jurong West flat

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Five of the six occupants in a Jurong West flat were taken to hospital after a fire, likely caused by a charging electric bicycle battery, broke out on Wednesday morning (Jan 19).

The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said in a Facebook post it was alerted to the fire at at Block 723 Jurong West Avenue 5 at around 6.10am.

When firefighters arrived, the fire could be seen inside the unit on the third floor.

Its six occupants had evacuated before their arrival, along with about 45 occupants in neighbouring flats.

SCDF said five occupants from the unit were taken to Singapore General Hospital for smoke inhalation. No other injuries were reported.

The blaze involved the contents of a living room and was extinguished with a Compressed Air Foam Backpack.

Pictures in SCDF's Facebook post show the charred remains of the living room covered with soot.

Preliminary investigations found the fire had originated from a battery pack of a power-assisted bicycle (PAB) that was being charged in the living room.

According to statistics released by SCDF in September 2021, personal electric vehicles were the cause of about 5 percent of all residential fires in Singapore, with 29 such fires reported in the first half of 2021.

Personal mobility devices (PMDs) that catch fire usually do so because of batteries that have short-circuited, experts told The Straits Times in a previous report.

One important reason that batteries short-circuit is damage to separators within the batterythat prevent positive and negative electrodes from touching.

Causes of separator damage include heat from overcharging the batteries and the use of incompatible chargers.

SCDF reminded users of PMDs and PABs not to charge batteries for an extended period or overnight. Users were also reminded not to buy or use non-original batteries.

 

[Fire @ Block 723 Jurong West Ave 5] Earlier this morning (19 Jan) at about 6.10am, SCDF was alerted to a fire at the...

Posted by Singapore Civil Defence Force on Tuesday, January 18, 2022
FIRESELECTRICAL APPLIANCESe-bike