Firefighters have warned electric vehicle owners to install smoke detectors where they charge their cars following a \u201clucky escape\u201d for a family in Sydney\u2019s northwest.<\/p>\n
A faulty electric vehicle (EV) charger has caused serious damage to a house at Galston when it failed in the early hours of Wednesday. <\/p>\n
A NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS) spokeswoman said crews were called to the home about 4.30am.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile there were no smoke alarms in the garage, a working smoke alarm in the hallway activated, allowing the family time to safely evacuate and giving firefighters a chance to extinguish the fire before it spread further into the home,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cRemember, it\u2019s important you have multiple smoke alarms installed throughout your home, particularly in areas where combustible \u00admaterials may be present.\u201d<\/p>\n
The RFS suggests people install smoke detectors where any combustible items \u2013 including EVs \u2013 are present.<\/p>\n
The Galston blaze follows a similar fire in Victoria in 2024 when an international adaptor used to charge a Nissan Leaf failed, prompting authorities to urge people to use proper equipment when charging.<\/p>\n
EV expert Emma Sutcliffe, director of EV Firesafe, said while she was not aware of specific details surrounding this week\u2019s incident, her business had recorded \u201can increase in the number of fires originating in poor electrical wiring or poor charging practices\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cUsing a power adaptor, power board or extension cord is not advisable,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019ve bought an EV, please purchase an electrically compliant charging unit and have it installed by an electrician.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou will save yourself a lot of heartache.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Sutcliffe said EV fires were relatively rare, with only 14 verified blazes involving the\u00a0batteries of plug-in electric or hybrid vehicles occurring in\u00a0Australia.<\/p>\n
Some EVs come with charging adaptors to plug into household power points, while others come with more \u00adcomprehensive charging arrangements that must be professionally installed.<\/p>\n
Ms Sutcliffe said many people were not aware that some EVs should not be charged using household power points.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe call it \u2018dumb ways to charge\u2019, but people just don\u2019t know any better,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey treat it like it\u2019s a fridge. Your fridge pulls power up and down when it needs to cool, while your car pulls constant power. It\u2019s not like your fridge.\u201d<\/p>\n
The fire warning comes as futuristic car seats made popular by Chinese EVs could be banned. The \u201czero-gravity\u201d seats which are capable of reclining to a near-flat position, have come under the microscope in China, where regulators are investigating after fatal crashes involving Xiaomi SU7 sedans last year.<\/p>\n
The seats also feature in some BYD, Zeekr and Xpeng vehicles.<\/p>\n
Any ban in China would have flow-on effects in \u00adAustralia, with local regulators understood to be watching the investigations closely. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Firefighters have warned electric vehicle owners to install smoke detectors where they charge their cars following a \u201clucky…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25548,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[297,23,133,23899,23916,23923,2285,23904,23907,18982,23902,23929,2288,18878,23910,23926,23903,23924,23912,23905,14104,23909,23917,23911,23908,23925,23922,23927,23928,23915,23921,23897,23918,355,120,23900,23919,23898,23901,23914,23920,23913,247,68,23906],"class_list":["post-25547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sydney","tag-asia","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-car-pulls","tag-charging-adaptors","tag-charging-practices","tag-china","tag-compliant-charging-unit","tag-comprehensive-charging-arrangements","tag-danica-de-giorgio","tag-david-mccowen","tag-dumb-ways","tag-eastern-asia","tag-electric-cars","tag-electric-vehicle","tag-electric-vehicle-owners","tag-electrical-wiring","tag-emma-sutcliffe","tag-extension-cord","tag-family-time","tag-fatal-crashes","tag-faulty-electric-vehicle","tag-flow-on-effects","tag-fridge-pulls","tag-futuristic-car-seats","tag-galston","tag-household-power-points","tag-hybrid-vehicles","tag-international-adaptor","tag-james-chung","tag-lucky-escape","tag-multiple-smoke-alarms","tag-near-flat-position","tag-new-south-wales","tag-oceania","tag-ongoing-fuel-shortage","tag-plug-in-electric","tag-power-adaptor","tag-power-board","tag-rfs","tag-smoke-alarms","tag-smoke-detectors","tag-sydney","tag-victoria","tag-working-smoke"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25547\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}