‘The e-bike wasn’t even plugged in - but it destroyed our entire home’
“People don’t realise they DON’T need to be plugged in to cause a fire,” the distraught Sydney father warns. “Something needs to change or people will die.”
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As Chris and wife Kate woke up on the second day of their long awaited holiday with their three children, just one phone call would completely shatter their lives in a matter of seconds.
The Sydney family were enjoying a Gold Coast break before their departure on a Pacific Islands cruise from Brisbane when the unthinkable happened.
“I heard Kate on the phone talking to our dog sitter, just asking, ‘Are you okay, are you okay?’” Chris tells Kidspot.
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“I knew immediately it was something bad.”
The dog sitter, a trusted 20-something neighbour, had to relay the devastating news that Chris and Kate’s home - which they had only moved into two years earlier after a five-year- long top-to-toe renovation - was now up in flames.
“She was in the kitchen and heard a hiss and a pop from the garage, and looked in and saw a fire starting from where an e-bike was,” Chris, 45, says of the blaze, which was discovered around 8am on January 16, 2023.
“She was incredibly lucky and was able to take our dog out with her. If she wasn’t awake and didn’t hear those first sparks, she would be dead.”
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"They saved the whole structure from burning down by only 30 seconds"
Instead of spending precious time with children, Charlie, 12, Jasmine, 10, and Patrick 8, Chris and Kate would spend the following days in anguish over how to navigate the loss of their beloved home from so far away. “I wasn’t in shock, I was just in the moment of what we do from here,” he remembers.
It was the quick action of fire crews, who arrived three minutes after the first emergency call, which Chris is infinitely grateful for.
“They said they saved the whole structure from being burnt down by only 30 seconds.”
With the two-storey, five bedroom home boarded up and Chris told there was nothing that could be done until it was further investigated - and no way to recoup the $6000 they had spent on their trip - the heartbroken family went on their cruise before returning home for what became the worst year of their lives.
“We knew this would be the last time for a long time that we could enjoy anything like this as a family,” Chris says emotionally.
“I had someone there who was advocating for us, but in all that time, I had no idea that everything inside was completely destroyed.”
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"Nothing can prepare you for the smell"
When he returned two weeks later, walking through his beloved home was overwhelming in ways he never imagined.
“I had seen photos and video, but nothing can prepare you for the smell,” the distraught father says.
“It’s just horrid. It’s a carcinogenic chemical smell. But the nine-month insurance battle that came after was even worse.”
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Overnight, Chris’s family of five became homeless with little more than the belongings they took on holiday.
For three months, they had no choice but to couch surf with family due to insurance funds for a rental being withheld. Then, six months after living in a rented home, the family were forced to find another roof over their heads as the property was being sold - all while having to pay a rising mortgage for a home they weren’t living in.
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"I wanted the kids to remember the year for something other than the fire"
With his original home still months away from being habitable again and under reconstruction, Chris, who works remotely as a journalist and blogger, took his family to south east asia for a few months to “heal”.
“We were struggling mentally and I wanted the kids to remember the year for something other than the fire,” the father-of-three says.
“I also wanted to give them perspective about them seeing how people live doing it tough and helping them realise how good we still have it.”
Fifteen torturous months after the fire, Chris’ family finally moved back into their home earlier this month.
“I had this dream of how great I would feel when I finally sat down on my couch and turned on the TV, and while I’m so glad we have been able to do so many things we have been unable to do since the fire, that feeling never came,” he says.
“The toll of what happened has made it apparent to us that it will take years to recover properly.”
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"Everything was just decimated"
With costs for the rebuild still coming in, Chris expects the damage to be in excess of $1 million.
“We didn’t even itemise what was gone because everything was just decimated - right down to the kids’ Christmas presents they got just a few weeks before.”
If that wasn’t bad enough, the dog sitter’s car, which was parked in front of the garage, was heavily damaged by the fire, and Chris was forced to pay for the expensive repairs out of his own pocket as it was not covered under the house insurance.
A forensic report has determined the cause of the fire was an e-bike that was not left on charge at the time of the fire, which came into the house as an “unwanted gift” two years earlier.
“It was a brand new, factory model e-bike that we had stored in the garage which was ridden once in the year prior to the fire,” the cautious dad says.
“There was a checklist the NSW Fire Service put out recently for e-bike storage - such as storing it in a cool place, not leaving it on charge, and not storing it if it had been in a crash - and we followed every one of those safety rules. I had no idea at the time that it was a thing that e-bikes or e-scooters could cause a fire. If I had known there was even a potential they could explode, I wouldn’t have had it in the house.”
Despite submitting the fire report to the Australian e-bike company in the hope of securing compensation and to improve safety of the product, Chris has been “devastated by their approach”, which has seen the door completely shut on any of their claims.
“The e-bike company is not accepting responsibility,” he says frustratedly.
“This is a major issue for Australia that is not being addressed.”
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"It doesn't have to be charging to blow up"
Now he’s set on warning everyone he can about the potential risks of owning any type of electric transport.
“It doesn’t have to be charging to blow up,” he says adamantly.
“I would tell every parent that taking precautions doesn’t necessarily make a difference. We didn’t do anything wrong and it still happened.”
Chris is a journalist, children’s book author and content creator documenting his insurance battle and trauma recovery via his YouTube channel.
Chris is grateful to the firefighters who fought to save his home, and is raising awareness of First Responders Day on 16 May. As part of this event, the two million first responders around Australia are eligible to receive a free two-year membership to the Australian Retailers Association’s Blue Light Card, which provides access to discounts and savings to products and experiences. It is available to frontline workers in all sectors of healthcare, police, fire, ambulance, aged care and defence, as well as emergency services volunteers from the State Emergency Services, Rural Fire Service and Surf Life Saving. To sign up, visit here and enter promo code FRD24.
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Originally published as ‘The e-bike wasn’t even plugged in - but it destroyed our entire home’
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