Factcheck: Did electric scooters cause a fire outside KLCC?

Yesterday, the Kuala Lumpur Fire and Rescue department (JBPM) responded to a fire incident outside Suria KLCC at 3.46 pm. Fifteen personnel in 2 fire trucks and one ambulance rushed to the scene, where 13 motorcycles and 4 electric scooters operated by Beam were in flames.

The fire department said 9 motorcycles and 4 electric scooters were completely damaged by the fire, while the remaining 4 motorcycles suffered minor burns.

The fire was put out by 4.04 pm. No casualties were reported.

UPDATE: Police have arrested a 34-year old food delivery rider for arson. It was not an accident. The motorcycles were torched. He was charged under Section 435 of the Penal Code which carries imprisonment for up to 14 years and a fine, if convicted. 

Because 4 electric scooters were involved, netizens were quick to conclude that this is the first fire incident involving an electric vehicle (EV), while others say the cause must have been the lithium-ion batteries in the scooters.

Fires involving battery in EVs is a serious issue. Yes, EVs don’t have a higher risk of fire than regular internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles but when they do, it’s incredibly difficult to put them out. Short of dunking an EV into a pool of water or letting it burn itself out in an open field, there is no permanent way of putting out an EV battery fire, which can keep reigniting over several days, even after the initial fire has been put out.

Also read: ICE cars have 4x higher fire risk than EVs but fire fighters say EV fires are more dangerous, here's why

Fire departments in USA and Korea are trialing fire suppression blankets that cover a burning EV but this is only a temporary measure to allow fire fighters to tow the burning vehicle into an open field to do a controlled burn or submerge it into a water tank.

Korea and Singapore are also drafting rules to make fire suppression measures, including inflatable water pools and high-capacity water sprinklers above EV charging bays in multi-storey car parks, where access by fire trucks can be difficult.

Also read: Fire risk of underground EV charging facilities - UK, Korea, Singapore raise concern

Having established the additional challenge of putting out a fire with electric cars, which often have large capacity batteries of between 50 to 100 kWh, it should be noted that an electric scooter’s battery is very, very small, less than 0.01 kWh. Batteries of this size is hardly a concern for fire fighters - unless there are 5,000 electric scooters going up in flames at the same time.

As demonstrated by our brave fire fighters, putting out fires involving tiny battery-powered e-scooters is no different from dousing regular combustion engine motorcycles.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation, but Beam Malaysia’s Country Manager Justin Tiew said in his Linkedin post that Beam’s e-scooters are not the cause of the fire.

“I would like to reiterate that the fire was NOT caused by Beam's e-scooters. All of Beam e-scooters undergo stringent international fire safety tests before being put on the street, and are UL2272 certified, an international fire safety certification of the highest level for Personal Mobility Devices (PMD). In addition, our vehicles undergo regular maintenance to ensure that every vehicle put on the street is safe and fit for use.

“I'm relieved that no passers-by were harmed in the accident, and my deepest sympathies go out to the owners of the other private motorcycles that were damaged by the fire. Kudos to the authorities for their quick response to contain the fire, preventing it from spreading and causing further damage,” said Justin.

Of course, we will have to wait for the final report from JBPM but you don’t need to role play Jin Ho-Gae of The First Responders to know that the four Beam scooters, which are parked further away from the centre of the fire, are clearly not the cause.