Phone chargers, fires & instagram
Have you ever worried about something catching fire when you are asleep? I will be honest; I never used to. Social media has decided, however, to send me videos of people receiving shocks or fires starting from phone chargers & batteries bursting into flames spontaneously. Thanks a lot Instagram… Which makes me a little nervous now. How could this happen? Let us take a brief look at the why & in the following blog post we will talk about how we can keep ourselves & our families safe.
Do chargers & batteries pose a risk to your home?
Without going into very detailed diagrams explaining the electronics and sending you into a deep sleep and spilling your coffee, the basic principle is this – if you are plugging your phone charger into an outlet connected to the wall in Australia, 230V goes in, goes through some electronic components which changes the electricity coming out to something similar to a battery (9V for example).
We have all heard how dangerously volatile lithium-ion batteries can be. Even a poorly made charger that puts out the wrong voltage or current & incorrectly charges a lithium-ion battery can cause the battery to explode or catch fire! This is why it is important to select the correct charger (more on that in the next article).
If the charger is not compliant with the Australian Standard for electrical equipment, or if the charger is damaged, the components inside the charger can fail which can mean that, suddenly, you have dangerous voltage and currents flowing through the charging cord.
Plugging that charger into your phone, iPad, etc. or touching the end of that cord is now going to really ruin your day. Sadly, the results can be tragic. A quick search through news articles online will show stories including the following:
“Fire caused by cheap phone charger sparks warning” (1News)
“Man, 65, dies in Hong Kong fire caused by short circuit of phone charger in flat” (South China Morning Post)
“Morocco: 5 Children Die in Fire Caused by Phone Charger Explosion” (Jordan News).
Unfortunately, closer to home, articles include:
“Sydney man dies in fire as battery blazes spike.” (Information Age by the ACS)
“Family lose everything in house fire sparked by charging iPad.” (9 News)
The NSW Government have even released this warning: “***Vision Alert: Spate of Lithium-Ion Fires and NSW Government Survey Sparks Community Wake-up Call on Battery Risks – Sydney” (published 10 Feb 2025 on fire.nsw.gov.au)
FRNSW crews had responded to thirteen lithium-ion-related fires across NSW since Sunday 2 February, including four incidents in a 12-hour period in the previous week.
The article goes onto quote Fire and Rescue NSW Commissioner, Jeremy Fewtrell as saying:
“We had at least 318 lithium-ion battery fires in NSW last year, that’s well up on the 272 of 2023 and 165 of 2022, we know they are on the rise, but people are still taking dangerous risks in their homes.”
“Please, heed our advice. Lithium-ion fires are happening to households almost every day.”
Chargers & lithium-ion batteries are of serious concern. So how can we stay safe? What precautions can we take? Let us have a look at our options in our next post.
