A spate of electric scooter fires this year has alarmed the government, which is keen to promote the use of such two-wheelers in its fight against pollution. Early investigations have identified faulty battery cells and battery modules among the main causes. The latest fire broke out late Monday in the basement of a hotel that houses a showroom of about two dozen electric scooters in the southern city of Secunderabad, police said. It had been brought under control and an investigation had been launched, they said. Most of the dead were residents of the hotel, which was engulfed in smoke. “There were electric scooters parked where the fire started,” city police official Chandana Deepti told Reuters. “We don’t know if it started because of an overload and then spread or if it started somewhere else. This is still under construction.” The identity of the dealer and the make of the scooters sold were not immediately clear. Police and firefighters used cranes and other equipment to pick up stranded hotel guests from the upper floors of the four-story building as smoke billowed from its windows, according to media images. “Those who stayed on the first and second floors were engulfed in smoke and the maximum casualties are from those floors,” CV Anand, the police chief of the neighboring city of Hyderabad, told Reuters partner ANI. Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed grief over the deaths and promised compensation for the fire victims. In March, India launched an investigation into safety concerns after a series of e-scooter fires, including one in which a man and his daughter died when their e-bike “caught fire”. India wants e-scooters and e-bikes to account for 80% of total two-wheeler sales by 2030, up from about 2% now.
