Toronto subway e-bike fire highlights dangers of incidents involving lithium-ion batteries

Dramatic videos and phone footage of a fire in a Toronto subway car Sunday afternoon after an e-bike and its battery ignited is raising further questions about the safety of lithium-ion batteries.

CityNews spoke with John, a commuter who asked to be identified by his first name, about the fire. He said he was on the westbound TTC train as it pulled into Sheppard-Yonge station at around 3 p.m. John said he captured a video showing smoke and small flames before an e-bike fully caught on fire.

“One of the guys’ e-bikes just started to make noise … it kind of sounded like a flare and then smoke came out, a couple of seconds later, fire came out,” John said, noting it smelled like a bonfire with a plastic bag tossed in.

“People evacuated pretty quickly. Some people fell on the floor and hurt their faces, but I don’t think they had serious injuries.”

He said he saw the owner of the bike try to respond to the fire. Officials later said the man suffered second-degree burns and was taken to a hospital. A second rider was also injured. A TTC operator had to be treated for smoke inhalation.

“It’s good because we were just at the station. It would have been really bad if we were in the middle of the tunnel or something,” John said.

Toronto Fire Services district chief Michael Ancio told CityNews firefighters had to put the lithium-ion battery into a sand mix to prevent it from reactivating. He said the train was moved to the TTC’s Davisville yard so investigators could continue their probe of the fire.

Ancio didn’t have further information about the condition of the battery or the e-bike, but noted there’s an increased fire risk if a lithium-ion battery gets on fire.

CityNews reported in October that Toronto Fire Services was dealing with a noticeable jump of lithium-ion battery fires in mobility devices.

In all of 2022, there were 29 fires linked to lithium-ion batteries. However, there have been 50 such fires as of mid-October.

Toronto Fire Services deputy chief Larry Cocco previously said the three typical causes are thermal (overheated), electrical (overcharged or charged with substandard equipment) or physical (damaged batteries) failures.

“The devices that are manufactured correctly and maintained correctly, we’re not seeing the problem. What we’re seeing is when the devices are not cared for properly or used properly,” he told CityNews at the time.

“When the devices are not cared for properly or used properly, altering the battery is going to guarantee you a failure. Altering the device is going to guarantee a failure.

“We’ve had incidents for example, where an individual wanted to increase the power in their e-bike so they doubled the battery capacity and the device couldn’t handle it.”

Cocco also referenced an incident where a lithium-ion battery caught fire 87 days after it was damaged.

“If you have a lithium-ion battery and you’re concerned that it’s failing and if it’s off-gassing or showing signs of smoke, we recommend you leave your residence, close the door behind you and call 911 and our crews will respond and address the battery,” he said.

“If you have concerns about a battery and you want to dispose of it properly, throwing it in the garbage is not an option because when it’s picked up in the waste cycle, if it gets crushed, it can start a fire in the apparatus.”

Cocco urged mobility device users to get batteries and chargers rated by accredited agencies in Canada, and original equipment recommended by the device’s manufacturer to reduce the risk.

CityNews contacted TTC officials to ask for reaction to Sunday’s incident. Spokesperson Adrian Grundy said in a statement the fire caused major damage and smoke.

“The safety of our customers and employees is our number one priority. We are examining similar incidents of e-bike fires that have occurred on transit systems in North America and Europe,” he wrote.

“We are continuing to work with Toronto Fire Services to better understand what caused this e-bike to ignite. Once we have a clear understanding of what happened, we can best determine next steps.”

Meanwhile, John said he’s noticed an increase of food couriers in Toronto with e-bikes using transit in 2023 and that this incident should prompt a rethink.

“They all have batteries. If one battery can go up in flames … they might have to do something about that,” he said.