Heartbreak after modified e-bike fire destroys home

Emma Wills moved in to the Chilworth property five months before the fire

A mother has warned about the perils of modified e-bikes after a fire left her family homeless and killed one of her kittens.

Emma Wills, from Chilworth in Surrey, moved in to the property five months before a modified e-bike charging in her living room caught fire at the end of January.

"To go from a fresh start to losing everything so quickly has been devastating," she said.

The e-bike, which belonged to a family friend, had recently been modified using a conversion kit bought online.

According to new research from consumer safety charity Electrical Safety First, a total of 23% of UK push-bike owners surveyed were considering turning their push-bike into an e-bike.

Conversion kits are cheaper to buy than a fully manufactured e-bike but come with huge risks, the charity has said.

Mrs Wills said the fire destroyed all the "sentimental keepsakes" that remind her of her late mother

Giuseppe Capanna, its product safety engineer, said: "Kits made up of substandard components can cause devastating fires.

"At present, technology has outpaced regulation meaning there are no existing safety standards for conversion kits."

Mrs Wills, who has three children, said: "I lost my mum in 2021, so all the memories and sentimental keepsakes I had of her are gone.

"They can never be replaced, and that breaks my heart."

Mrs Wills said losing the family kitten was "heartbreaking"

She added: "It's had a huge impact on my two youngest children. They don't want to go out anymore.

"It doesn't just affect one part of your life, it affects everything."

Mrs Wills said losing the kitten, which had been hand-reared by the family from four-weeks-old, was "heartbreaking".

In 2024, the Office for Product Safety and Standards received 170 reports of e-bike fires, with 45% confirmed to be from converted e-bikes.

The actual number is expected to be much higher as not all fire and rescue services notify OPSS of blazes involving consumer products.

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