{"id":84035,"date":"2026-08-31T09:10:31","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T09:10:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/84035\/"},"modified":"2026-08-31T09:10:31","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T09:10:31","slug":"e-bike-battery-fire-engulfs-murwillumbah-familys-house-and-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/84035\/","title":{"rendered":"E-bike battery fire engulfs Murwillumbah family’s house and business"},"content":{"rendered":"

A man is recovering in hospital and his family is counting the cost of an e-bike blaze in northern New South Wales.<\/p>\n

Valley E-bike owner Mick Parkhill said his family lost everything when flames engulfed their home in South Murwillumbah about 3:00am.<\/p>\n

“I was asleep and heard a noise. I thought it was someone breaking in and I just ran to the front of the house and \u2026 it looked like the lights were on underneath the house,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The family has lost everything after an e-bike fire early this morning. (ABC News: Hannah Ross)<\/p>\n

Mr Parkhill said he tried to use a fire blanket to put out the flames as the family of four scrambled to safety.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The smoke was pretty intense, and so I got out on my hands and knees and crawled in stupidly, looking back on it, but just thought I could just get that blanket over it,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I tried to get [the dogs out] a couple of times.<\/p>\n

“I just couldn’t, [and that’s] the saddest part.”<\/p>\n

\"Person<\/p>\n

Firefighters in hazmat suits leave the scene of an e-bike fire which took nearly 3 hours to control. (ABC News: Hannah Ross)<\/p>\n

NSW Fire and Rescue said it took multiple crews about 3 hours to bring the blaze under control.<\/p>\n

The risks of e-bikes<\/p>\n

Mr Parkhill said he and his partner ran an e-bike business out of their home and a shed in Railway Street, near the start of the Tweed Valley Rail Trail.<\/p>\n

“We knew [the] risk, we played the Russian roulette and I guess we paid the price,” he said.\"Sun<\/p>\n

The family of four survived the large lithium battery fire but lost their dogs. (Supplied: Ursula Wharton)<\/p>\n

“We’ve got 70-odd bikes, there’s at least $500,000 in bikes, easy.”<\/p>\n

Mr Parkhill said he was aware of the dangers posed by lithium-ion batteries, and had built a separate storage area for them.<\/p>\n

“The worst part is that \u2026 I didn’t put the batteries in there,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I was just tired.<\/p>\n

“I was exhausted after [a few] big days and just wheeled them in and thought I’ll do them today.”<\/p>\n

\"House<\/p>\n

Fire in Murwillumbah destroyed a family home and e-bike business. (ABC News: Hannah Ross)<\/p>\n

Mr Parkhill said he hoped to rebuild the business and would not be making the same mistake again.<\/p>\n

“Complacency and stupidity, I’m just putting it down to,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Because you know \u2026 you’ve done something over thousand times before and nothing’s happened.”<\/p>\n

\"two<\/p>\n

A e-bike business was being run from the property. (Supplied: Ursula Wharton)<\/p>\n

Mr Parkhill said his home was a renovated buyback house from the 2022 floods.<\/p>\n

“It was getting lifted next month,” he said.<\/p>\n

“There’s nothing to lift now. I’ve lost my livelihood. I’ve lost everything.”\"Sun<\/p>\n

Thick smoke was in the area after the large house fire. (Supplied: Ursula Wharton)<\/p>\n

‘Very difficult to put out’<\/p>\n

NSW Fire and Rescue Northern Rivers Inspector Tim Climo said it was an intense blaze.<\/p>\n

“Due to the e-bikes that were under the house and lithium batteries, once they start going, they’re very difficult to put out,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"smoke<\/p>\n

Firefighters at the scene this morning. (Supplied: Ursula Wharton)<\/p>\n

“Fire and Rescue are doing a lot of research into lithium-ion batteries at present and they’re trying to get legislation changed.<\/p>\n

“We recommend people using reputable manufacturers and suppliers when they do purchase e-bikes and batteries.”<\/p>\n

Inspector Climo said there were precautions people could take when charging lithium-ion batteries.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

A house partially collapsed after a large fire sparked by an e-bike battery. (Supplied: Ursula Wharton)<\/p>\n

“Ideally, you want to charge them under a carport or a shed away from the house or inside in your garage, but you want to have a smoke detector in your garage if it’s inside,” he said.<\/p>\n

“If you go away from the house, take them off charge.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Once they [are] fully charged, take them out of the charger.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man is recovering in hospital and his family is counting the cost of an e-bike blaze in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84036,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22,21,27615,136792,20595,844],"class_list":["post-84035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-batteries","tag-charging-lithium-ion-batteries","tag-ebike","tag-fire"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84035","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=84035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}