A family has been forced to find a new home after the house they rented in Winnipeg was completely gutted in a fire that they say was caused by an electronic bike.
Catherine Beardy says she, her five young children and two of her brothers had to flee the two-storey house on Toronto Street where she had been living for about two years on Thursday night.
The city says the cause of the fire is still under investigation, but Beardy says it began once one of the batteries of the two e-bikes the family uses to commute suddenly burst into flames.
“I came down; the bike was engulfed and shooting out battery acid,” she said. “I ran upstairs to get my kids, and when we came down it was already black and all lit up — and I couldn’t get my dogs.”
Snowflake and Snowball, two white bulldogs that Beardy says grew up with her children, died in the fire.
The family is living in a hotel for now, with some assistance from the Red Cross. But Beardy said they don’t know how long they’ll be there.
“We lost everything,” she said. “I’ve had family help me with clothing and food and stuff. It’s not easy asking for help.”
Chris Romero, Beardy’s husband, was out of the city for work when the fire happened. He said his family told him that one of the bikes had been charging overnight when it suddenly exploded.
Romero said he’s had the bikes for less than a year — one purchased from Facebook Marketplace and another from a big-box retailer — and that they still looked brand new.
“In Vancouver — I go out there a lot to work and stuff — there’s electric bikes all over the city,” he said.
“These big companies that sell these electric bikes, they leave these batteries charging all night until they come back in the morning and then people use them and rent them. So I never thought it would be a problem.”
Roberta Owen, Beardy’s aunt, has been helping out her niece’s family.
“This is the second family I’ve heard in the last I think seven months that this has happened to,” she said. “If this happened again to somebody else … what if the next time they ain’t so lucky?”
Fire risk minimal but ‘catastrophic’: e-bike association
The batteries that power e-bikes — lithium-ion batteries — are also found in laptops, phones and other electronic devices. They’re easier to damage and more unstable than other types of batteries, according to Health Canada.
Health Canada warns the batteries can explode when overheated, causing fires that are hard to extinguish. It says the larger batteries needed to power e-scooters or e-bikes are even more dangerous.
Last December, an e-bike caught fire inside a subway car in Toronto, setting it aflame.
Ontario’s provincial transit agency, Metrolinx, banned uncertified e-bikes from its trains and buses. Meanwhile, at least one landlord in that city decided to ban them from their building altogether.
The Canadian Electric Bicycle Association provides training to e-bike dealers across the country on best practices.
Michael Pasquali, the association’s founder, says as the e-bike market continues to grow exponentially, it’s important for sellers to educate the public on how their products work.
“The best safety advice I can give somebody is to read your owner’s manual,” he said. “Have a working smoke detector. Have a fire plan. Don’t block your only exit if you live in an apartment, for instance, don’t just get in your door and charge your battery there if that’s your only exit.”
Pasquali said owners should check whether their e-bikes have “UL” certification from the Underwriters Laboratories of Canada, which tests out products for safety.
He said people should not buy an e-bike second-hand, only use the charging cord it came with, and never let anyone modify their bike.
“The risks are minimal. If you think about how many [e-bikes] are on Canadian roads … and the amount of fires that are happening, they’re minimal. But when they happen, they’re catastrophic,” he said.
The city said batteries should be kept at room temperature, and away from anything that may catch fire. It said owners should unplug the batteries as soon as they’re fully charged, and never leave them plugged in overnight or when no one’s around.
Beardy said she regrets they ever got the bikes.
The children “won’t accept that we lost the dogs,” she said. “Everything else is replaceable but them.”
WATCH | Displaced Winnipeg family says devastating fire was caused by e-bike: