Three fires in Ottawa overnight; lithium batteries a growing concern

Firefighters in Ottawa responded to three fires overnight, continuing a pattern that has stretched the city's emergency services over successive nights.

The first call came at 7:37 p.m. Wednesday from a resident in the 0-100 block of Valencia Street in Nepean, reporting an electric scooter fire in an attached garage. Crews found heavy black and brown smoke pouring from the structure. They moved the scooter to the driveway and extinguished the flames by 7:47 p.m.—four minutes after arriving on scene, before the fire could spread to the garage itself.

Most modern e-scooters rely on lithium-ion batteries, which fire officials have been tracking closely. The city has responded to over a dozen lithium-battery fires in recent months.

Just after 12:14 a.m. Thursday, crews were called to a townhome fire in the city's east end. A working smoke alarm woke the resident, who was the only person home. Firefighters found heavy smoke and flames in a second-storey bedroom, extinguishing them before they spread further. The resident has been displaced, and a fire investigator was dispatched.

Hours later, at 3:56 a.m., another bedroom fire erupted in an apartment above a commercial complex on Merivale Road. Smoke and flames were visible from the windows when crews arrived. One person was home and greeted them outside. Firefighters attacked the fire through a window before entering the unit, bringing it under control by 4:24 a.m.

The back-to-back overnight shifts mark the second consecutive night the city has battled three fires—the previous night also saw three separate incidents.