Second possible e-scooter battery fire on same inner-city street

Fire investigators are working to determine if an e-scooter battery started a blaze that ripped through a New Farm unit on the same street as another apartment fire caused by an e-scooter battery earlier this year.

A man suffered burns to his head, arm and back and one firefighter was treated by paramedics after the fire engulfed the unit on Lower Bowen Terrace shortly before 10am on Sunday.

The blaze sent plumes of smoke billowing across New Farm.

Smoke billows from the unit on Lower Bowen Terrace in New Farm on Sunday morning. Credit: Kathleen Durham

Investigators were still working to officially determine the cause of the blaze on Monday, but firefighters believed an e-scooter battery was the source.

“We know those scooters have a high volume of fuel, and they explode,” firefighter Storm Richter said on Sunday afternoon.

Paramedics assessed three people at the scene. The man who suffered burns to his head, arm and back was in his 50s, while two women, also believed to be in their 50s, were treated for smoke inhalation. A firefighter was also assessed by paramedics, after being one of the first to go into the burning unit.

Firefighters attend to a unit fire in New Farm on November 3, 2024.Credit: Cameron Atfield

They were taken to the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, each in a stable condition.

In April, another unit on the same street was destroyed in a fire caused by an e-scooter that was left charging in a loungeroom.

The apartment on Bowen Terrace, a block back from busy Brunswick Street, burst into flames on April 21.

Sunday’s fire is at least the third residential fire this year caused by an e-scooter battery after a home on the corner of Orion and Sirius streets in Coorparoo was destroyed by a blaze in January.

Lithium-ion batteries used in e-scooters have been blamed for a spate of house fires in south-east Queensland over the past two years, prompting a review into Queensland’s Electrical Safety Act.

In 2022, firefighters were called to at least 24 house fires linked to lithium-ion batteries, including a blaze that claimed the life of father-to-be Blake Whell and severely injured his pregnant partner Tomeka Willis.

Seven fire crews were at the New Farm unit on Sunday, which was fully engulfed in flames before the blaze was extinguished about 10.30am.

Firefighters were able to contain the blaze and stop it spreading to other units.

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