SYDNEY, March 15 (Xinhua) — The fire authority in the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW) on Friday expressed concern over the rising rate of lithium-ion battery fires as crews responded to four separate incidents in one single day.
In one of the incidents all reported on Thursday, an e-bike caught fire at Bankstown in Sydney’s southwest on the morning, with residents evacuated. The cases also included a fire in an electric vehicle charging station at Berkeley, a suburb of Wollongong on the state’s Central Coast.
According to Fire and Rescue NSW, there have been 63 lithium-ion battery fires reported so far this year, at a rate of 5.7 blazes a week. Seven people have been injured in the fires.
Last year saw 72 lithium-ion battery-related fires in total, at a rate of 5.2 per week.
