Image: Supplied
A discarded e-bike battery has caused a garbage truck fire at Surry Hills, prompting a fresh warning from Fire and Rescue NSW (FRNSW) about the dangers of binning batteries. It adds to an increasingly long list of e-bike and scooter warnings, many directly following the 83 fires caused by e-bike and scooter lithium-ion batteries in 2024.
The blaze reportedly broke out at Wemyss Lane at 8:40 am as the truck was moving. FRNSW crews from the City of Sydney station arrived quickly at the scene, instructing the driver to tip the smoking truck’s full load of burning rubbish onto the street.
After extinguishing the flames, firefighters located the e-bike battery, which had been thrown out in household garbage. No-one was injured.
E-Bike Battery Fires Are A Growing Trend
The incident marks at least the third garbage truck fire in NSW in just six days. The first blaze, reported on Friday, caused major traffic delays on the M5 Motorway at Milperra. There, the fire was so intense the cause could not be determined. This was followed three days later by another fire in a truck at Kirribilli on Monday.
There have been 40 such fires in NSW so far this year, with most believed to have been caused by lithium-ion batteries thrown out in household rubbish. When garbage trucks compact their loads, lithium-ion batteries can be crushed or damaged, triggering a process known as ‘thermal runaway’, which can cause intense fires that spread to surrounding waste.
Now, FRNSW are urging the community to responsibly dispose of batteries using free drop-off points. This message is being further reinforced by New South Wales Environment Protection Authority’s “Never Bin A Battery” campaign, its promotional video fittingly depicting a garbage truck fire.
“Be fire safe and dispose of batteries responsibly through an authorised drop-off point, rather than risk fires in garbage trucks, tips and waste management centres,” FRNSW Acting Assistant Commissioner of Community Safety, Greg Rankin, said.
“Once they catch alight, lithium-ion batteries are difficult to extinguish because they generate their own heat source, oxygen and fuel. Whether it’s a mobile phone, a laptop computer or tablet; a cordless vacuum cleaner, an electric toothbrush or even a vape, if they end up in a garbage truck and catch fire, it endangers the drivers and wider public.”
NSW EPA Director Sam Lewis also weighed in, stating that while tossing a battery might seem like the easy option at home, it will have “flow-on effects”.
“It only takes one spark to start a garbage truck fire,” Lewis said.
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