Home battery charging fires increase by a third; shared charging rooms proposed

Tamperelainen reports that damage from charging battery-powered devices in Finnish homes has risen by about a third over five years. Many Finns still charge overnight or leave devices plugged in.

The insurance company Lähitapiola, which provided the survey and loss statistics, found that 36 percent of Finns often charge devices at night, while only a quarter avoid nighttime charging altogether. Its records show incidents where batteries ignited, smoked or overheated have grown roughly one third in five years. One in ten people said they leave a device charging when they go out, and about a third reported using a faulty charger or device, increasing the risk of accidents. Antti Määttänen, Lähitapiola Pirkanmaa's claims director, urged housing companies to install communal, fire-safe charging rooms for large batteries to reduce the danger of fires spreading inside apartments.

The warnings follow Lähitapiola's earlier alert about clusters of fires caused by rechargeable tool batteries Lähitapiola's earlier warning and come after an electric-vehicle blaze in a Tampere parking hall that insurers described as one of the largest worldwide the Tampere parking-hall EV fire.