Coroner issues e-bike storage warning after boy, 8, dies in fire

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

A coroner has warned of the “life-threatening” risks of storing electronic bikes and scooters in the home after an eight-year-old boy died in a house fire.

Luke Albiston O’Donnell died after an e-bike on charge in the front room of his house in Merseyside caught fire in the early hours of 4 August, an inquest heard.

The blaze was sparked by the ignition of the bike’s lithium battery. Luke died in hospital from hypoxia – low levels of oxygen in the body – and carbon monoxide poisoning, the inquest concluded.

Anita Bhardwaj, the area coroner for Liverpool and the Wirral, has sent a preventing future deaths report to the Office of Product Safety and Standards (OPSS), the National Fire Chiefs Council and Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service highlighting concerns that the public need to be better informed about the dangers of storing e-bikes and e-scooters at home. READ NEXT: Breast cancer can be spotted at earliest stages thanks to new blood test, scientists say Ms Bhardwaj said: “The general public do not appreciate the life-threatening risks involved with having lithium iron batteries, from electronic bikes in this case, stored in domestic properties.