GuidanceFire prevention, September 2026
Lithium battery fire risks in schools
Fires linked to lithium batteries have more than doubled in three years. The controls that work in a school are mostly about where charging happens.
Lithium batteries arrived in schools without anyone quite deciding to allow them. Tablet trolleys, cordless tools and vacuums, portable speakers, robotics kits, power banks, and staff or sixth form e-bikes in the shed or the corridor.
Why they are different
A failing cell goes into thermal runaway. It makes its own heat and its own oxygen, so smothering it does nothing, and it can reignite hours later. Fire crews use very large volumes of water. Nobody on site should be expected to tackle one, and a corridor extinguisher will not help.
Most of the answer is location
Charging belongs somewhere agreed, during occupied hours, with detection in the room and clear of escape routes. Corridors, stairwells, under stairs and closed cupboards are the places to rule out. Trolleys are best sited so that a fire would not stand between a class and the door.
E-bikes and e-scooters
Most schools land on not charging them indoors at all, and keeping the machines and batteries outside the building. Fire investigations point again and again at conversion kits, mismatched chargers and batteries bought through online marketplaces, so what is bought matters as much as where it is charged.
Battery housekeeping
- One agreed charging point per building, and everyone knows where it is.
- Nothing charging in a corridor, stairwell or closed cupboard.
- Charging during occupied hours rather than overnight.
- Original chargers, and no marketplace replacements.
- Damaged or swollen batteries taken out of use the day they are found.
- A written position on e-bikes and e-scooters, shared with staff and parents.
- A collection route for damaged batteries, stored outside until they go.
If a battery starts to fail
Popping or hissing, a solvent smell, swelling or vapour are all warnings. Get people out, close the door, leave the device where it is, and call 999 saying it is a lithium battery. Then tell the crew where the rest are kept.
How we help
We agree where charging happens with the site team, bring it into the fire risk assessment, and draft a short e-bike and e-scooter position the school can issue under its own name.
General guidance only. It does not replace the fire risk assessment, water hygiene risk assessment or specific advice for a particular building.
