Neighbour’s heroic act after e-scooter bursts into flames
A Brisbane man has been captured on CCTV running to the rescue of his neighbours after he heard an explosion.
Dramatic vision shows the moment a neighbour raced to rescue a family of four as their Brisbane home went up in flames when an e-scooter exploded.
In the chilling CCTV footage, Edwin can be seen running across the street to the Darra property at about 4am on Thursday, wearing only pyjamas and carrying a fire extinguisher, Seven News reported. While bright flames light up the screen, the residents scream for help.
“I grab my fire extinguisher and I run, when I near the door, the scooter is on big fire so I extinguish all the fire,” Edwin told the media outlet.
“I pulled everything outside, that's the time I couldn't breathe properly and everything, but I wanted to make sure there was no fire.”
‘Knew something really bad had happened’
The e-scooter had been left to charge by the front door of the Sigiriya Street property overnight when it overheated and exploded, Seven News said.
“It was an explosion that I’d never heard before, it was like going wosh, wosh, just sort of a noise through the house and that’s when I knew something had happened really bad,” resident Rachel Saunders told the broadcaster.
The mother, along with her partner and two teenage daughters, managed to escape the blaze but her partner, a man in his 40s, was left with serious burns to his back. He was rushed to Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital and will undergo surgery today.
Rachel, her two girls and Edwin were also transferred to hospital. The mother had minor burns to her hand while the others were treated for smoke inhalation. The house suffered minor damage.
‘Don’t leave e-scooters on charge overnight’
Firies across the country say they’ve seen an increase in house fires with the rise in popularity of electric bikes and scooters, especially around Christmas time.
“We are seeing a trend in fires occurring in these and they can occur rapidly with some explosive force, be very hot and be very difficult to put out,” Superintendent Adam Deberry from Fire and Rescue NSW told Yahoo News. “And then they can actually take out the home as well.”
He is urging people to be wary of cheap imported products, saying “you get what you pay for".
“Just be really careful about what you’re buying,” he said. “Buy from a reputable retailer, buy reputable brands and make sure they meet the Australian safety standard. “
And more importantly, “make sure you have working smoke detectors in your home and don’t leave them on charge".
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