ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. — A man in St. Johns County is speaking out about the dangers of e-bikes after his garage caught on fire two days in a row.
Ryan Miller says his wife woke him up around 2 a.m. Wednesday morning to find his entire garage up in flames.
“She said, ‘The house is on fire,’ and I said, ‘The house isn’t on fire. Go back to bed,’” Miller said. “And then she said, ‘No, the house is on fire.’ And I looked up, and I could see the smoke towards the ceiling.”
He said once they opened the connecting garage door, they were met with a cloud of smoke.
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Miller says he and his wife rushed themselves, their dogs and their five children — ranging from just a year old to 14 — out the door.
By the time St. Johns County Fire Rescue arrived, Miller says they had to saw off the garage door in order to extinguish it.
Left behind were items from the garage and the attic, all melted together into one huge pile.
“The house is still gonna have to be rebuilt for the most part because the smoke got inside and kind of corrupted the house,” Miller said. “But the structure is still here, and we’re not starting from complete zero, so we’re really happy.”
St. Johns County Fire Rescue Public Information Officer Chris Naff says the investigation led them to believe the fire was started by an e-bike charging inside the garage.
“The initial indication is that it was continuously charging, and maybe that the charger actually malfunctioned, which would overcharge the batteries, which heats them up and allows them to go into thermal runaway, which would cause the fire,” Naff said.
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But just when the family thought the chaos was over, Miller says he got a call from his wife the following afternoon.
“I get a call from my wife that the house is back on fire,” Miller said. “I said, ‘What do you mean the house is back on fire again?’ Unbelievable! You can’t make this stuff up.”
A second fire had erupted after Miller said one of the e-bike batteries left behind exploded.
“There’s little cells within it, and apparently it’s made up of like 40 different cells,” Miller said. “The fire inspector only found one yesterday, and there were some remaining in the pile, and apparently, one of those extra cells or the second battery had ignited and started on fire again.”
Naff says the fire department was alerted by a neighbor.
“They called 911 really quickly, and we were able to get out there and kind of do a little bit more overhaul of the garage area, digging some stuff out,” Naff said. “We found a lot of different lithium-ion batteries, from some yard mowers and trimmers to some battery backups that you would use for a hurricane, and then also some different lithium-ion batteries that were still in there, so we got all that stuff out of the house.”
Naff says that lithium batteries are everywhere, including in cellphones, watches, golf carts, e-scooters and lawn equipment, and they must be unplugged overnight.
“We’re seeing a lot more charging issues, where the chargers kind of malfunction,” Naff said. “They’re supposed to turn off when the battery’s full, and we’re seeing a lot of them malfunction and basically just keep trying to charge the battery, which causes overheating, which causes the thermal runaway.”
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Naff says to be extra vigilant with anything that uses lithium batteries — where you place them, how you place them and how you charge them. He recommends, if possible, charging items with lithium batteries outside and installing a smoke detector in your garage.
Miller relays a similar message.
“There were two full gas cans, five-gallon gas cans, in the garage that never ignited,” Miller said. “There were two full generators in the garage that never ignited because they were on the opposite side of the garage, but had it progressed even further, then who knows — the whole house could have burned down completely. So, we got really lucky, and thanks to God’s grace, we got out of it.”
To donate to the Miller family’s GoFundMe, click here.
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