{"id":700486,"date":"2026-05-29T00:57:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T00:57:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/700486\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T00:57:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T00:57:21","slug":"calgary-fire-officials-warn-of-rising-e-scooter-battery-fires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/700486\/","title":{"rendered":"Calgary fire officials warn of rising e\u2011scooter battery fires"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Calgary fire officials are sounding the alarm about a fast\u2011growing safety hazard tied to e-scooters. <\/p>\n<p>The Calgary Fire Department says lithium\u2011ion battery fires linked to the scooters and other devices nearly doubled between 2024 and 2025, causing more than $30 million in damage and prompting renewed warnings about charging, storage and equipment safety.<\/p>\n<p>Calgary Fire Chief Steve Dongworth says the surge in incidents is tied to several factors, including overcharging, incompatible chargers, physical damage to batteries and poor construction. He notes that many low\u2011quality offshore batteries don\u2019t meet Canadian safety standards and are more likely to fail.<\/p>\n<p>Modifying e\u2011scooters or e\u2011bikes to increase speed or power also creates major fire risks. Dongworth says the changes push the devices beyond their design. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cIncreasing the power of your e-bike or e-scooter to go faster sounds all great, except you\u2019re moving it away from a certified, validated piece of equipment,\u201d Dongworth says.<\/p>\n<p>Once a lithium\u2011ion battery ignites, the fire can be explosive and release toxic, highly flammable vapours, according to Dongworth.<\/p>\n<p>Fire officials say the trend is continuing this year, citing another costly blaze involving a <a href=\"https:\/\/calgary.citynews.ca\/2026\/03\/16\/calgary-automotive-fire\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">high\u2011end auto shop<\/a> and an electric vehicle. <\/p>\n<p>Calgarians are warned not to throw lithium\u2011ion batteries in the garbage, since compactors in trucks and landfills can crush them and spark fires.<\/p>\n<p>Dongworth says charging habits matter as well, urging people not to charge devices in apartment hallways or other possible escape routes. Fire crews are encouraging residents to recycle batteries at approved depots and to avoid leaving devices charging unattended.<\/p>\n<p>\t\tKeep it Factual<\/p>\n<p>Add CityNews Calgary as a trusted source on Google to see more local stories from us.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=calgary.citynews.ca\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"add-trusted-source-badge\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1778182273_786_google-trusted-badge.png\" alt=\"Add as a preferred source on Google\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Calgary fire officials are sounding the alarm about a fast\u2011growing safety hazard tied to e-scooters. The Calgary Fire&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":672883,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194293],"tags":[49,2798,48],"class_list":["post-700486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-calgary","tag-ca","tag-calgary","tag-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=700486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/672883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=700486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=700486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=700486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}