12 October 2024 , 11:34
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A woman who had to drag her partner out of a fire in their home after a lithium battery says the couple have ‘lost everything’.
Mum-of-two Joanne Davis, 45, was heading to bed in her flat in Barking, east London when she heard a ‘loud bang’ from the next room where her partner Ken, 46, slept shortly after midnight on October 3.
When she opened the door, she saw sparks shooting out of a device ‘like a firework’, flames beginning to erupr and heard Ken yelling ‘Jo, save me’.
She pulled him to safety and called 999, sparking a response from 60 firefighters who evacuated all 50 people inside the building.
The London Fire Brigade (LFB) are treating the fire as accidental, believing it was caused by the catastrophic failure of a lithium battery.
Ken suffered burns to his face and arms, a partially collapsed lung and damage to his chest cavity, and remains in hospital.
The couple’s cats, Toby and Tilly, whom they considered their ‘best friends’, died in the fire, and all their possessions were destroyed.
Joanne and her son , who is raising funds to help her (Picture: PA)
Joanne said: ‘It all happened in minutes – from the noise and the piercing screams of Ken, screaming for me to save him because he thought he was going to die – in 10 minutes, everything changed our home forever.
‘Our cats have been lost and we will never get over this. Right now, I am existing. I feel numb, empty and just lost without Ken.’
The battery was used to power a heating implement which Ken had bought for a homemade hot tub on their roof terrace.
Lithium batteries are commonly used in e-bikes and e-scooters, which the LFB has branded the London’s fastest-growing fire risk.
The fire destroyed all their possessions (Picture: PA)
Their warning came amidst a slew of seemingly random explosions of the batteries, which killed three people and injured 60 last year.
Many were linked to a specific product, UPP Battery, manufactured in China.
the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) took enforcement action against the manufacturer and several online marketplaces which had been selling the battery in the UK.
Lithium batteries are generally safe for use but ‘present a fire risk when over-charged, short-circuited, submerged in water or damaged’, fire chiefs say.