E-bike battery warning after man killed in blaze

The coroner has written to the government about the sale of e-bike battery conversion kits

A coroner has asked the government to examine rules around the sale of lithium-ion battery kits used to change pedal cycles into e-bikes after a fatal fire believed to have been sparked by one of the cells.

Mohsin Janjua, 28, died after his converted e-bike caught fire while charging in the living room overnight at his Bradford home.

Following an inquest into Mr Janjua's death, senior coroner Martin Fleming said it was "more likely than not that the fire was caused by a catastrophic failure" of the battery.

He said that kits intended for e-bike conversions sold through online market places "pose a significant and growing risk to public safety".

A Prevention of Future Deaths report published on Monday explained how the inquest into Mr Janjua's death heard how when he became aware of the fire in December 2023, he alerted his mother and son in the upstairs bedroom and they were all able to escape via the front door.

However, Mr Janjua believed his brother was trapped inside the house and he went back in to find him, but his sibling had already leapt to safety from an upstairs window.

Fire crews searching the property found Mr Janjua unresponsive in a rear bedroom and he was subsequently confirmed to have died.

'Review and reconsider'

The inquest, which concluded on 30 July, heard Mr Janjua had converted his Carrera pedal cycle with an electric motor 18 months previously. He replaced the motor a week before he died with a 52-volt battery.

A test purchase showed that the battery Mr Janjua bought from a seller on eBay was thought to have come from China and did not conform to UK safety standards.

Although the battery recovered from the fire showed some similarities with the test purchase, the coroner said fire damage prevented further identification.

The fire investigation officer confirmed in his evidence that the lithium-ion battery purchased by Mr Janjua was the source of the fire.

Coroner Mr Fleming wrote to the Office for Product Safety and Standards to "review and reconsider the adequacy of the of the current unregulated sale of lithium-ion batteries".

The government office, which is part of the Department for Business and Trade, has until 25 September to respond.

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