Fire safety advice for battery-powered mobility scooters and wheelchairs

Below are fire safety considerations for battery-powered mobility scooters and wheelchairs.

• Store your mobility scooter or wheelchair in a safe place
• This should be away from the fire escape route. This is because the scooter could get in the way, but also if it were to be involved in a fire, this could affect the escape route. Within some sheltered accommodation there are specific scooter storerooms adapted to allow safe storage and fire protection, this is an ongoing project
• You must charge your scooter in a specially designated, well-ventilated area where possible
• You should only charge during the daytime. This is because if something goes wrong with the battery and there is a fire, there would be people awake to raise the alarm
• Never leave your battery on charge continually as there is a potential to overheat
• If a mobility scooter is involved in a fire, it can release large volumes of smoke, get very hot, and sometimes have a violent reaction. If they are stored on escape routes, including those in the home, escape routes to front or rear door, these could become impassable, in shared walkways/ escape routes communal areas residents could be placed at significant risk in the event of a fire.

Storage areas should:

• Be fully risk assessed
• Be in an area that will not impact on the safe evacuation in the event of a fire
• Be compliant with building regulations relating to the fire-resisting construction
• Must have an early-warning fire alarm system installed.

What to do if there is a fire

• Don’t tackle the fire yourself
• If you can, get out, stay out and call 999
• If you can’t dial 999 yourself, get a neighbour to do it for you
• If you can’t get out, go into a room that has a window and a phone and shut the door
• Put blankets or towels around the bottom of the door to block out the smoke, then open the window and call ‘Help Fire’
• Keep a whistle handy if it’s hard to shout.