A man who survived an ebike battery fire that killed his partner and two children is calling for compulsory regulation of lithium batteries after the tragedy. Scott Peden, 31, suffered severe burns and a broken heel when the battery exploded in his Cambridge flat last June, killing Gemma, 31, Lilly, eight, and Oliver, four.
Peden was placed in an induced coma for a month and learned of his family's fate only upon waking. Police told him they died from lithium gas poisoning. The fire, caused by a secondhand battery bought online days earlier, destroyed the family's council flat.
Peden is backing a campaign by Electrical Safety First for independent third-party certification of ebike batteries, similar to regulations for fireworks. He said: 'Campaigning has given me a sense of purpose. My life has been ruined but I can help save someone else's.'
The number of ebike and escooter fires in London more than doubled from 78 in 2021 to 179 last year, with 66 already in the first five months of this year. Eleven people died in ebike battery fires in the UK last year, the highest annual figure.
The Department of Business and Trade said a Whitehall taskforce has been set up to tackle the problem. Peden urged the next government to act swiftly: 'The longer they take to regulate, the more the bodies will pile up.'
