Govt starts task force to look into fires caused by personal mobility devices

SINGAPORE — Ratcheting up efforts to curb fires caused by personal mobility devices (PMDs), the Government has set up a task force to pool resources as well as share expertise and information between agencies.

This is to minimise the fire risks from non-compliant vehicles.

The group — comprising the Land Transport Authority (LTA), Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF), Housing and Development Board (HDB) and Enterprise Singapore — held its first meeting last week, LTA announced in a Facebook post on Sunday (Sept 1).

The news comes less than a month after the authorities brought forward a deadline by half a year for all vehicles to meet UL2272, a safety standard that will reduce the risk of fires.

Users will have to do so by July 1 next year, instead of Jan 1, 2021, after a spate of fires involving PMDs drew widespread public concern and prompted a ministerial statement in Parliament last month. 

In its first meeting, the taskforce, which is chaired by LTA and SCDF, discussed how it could develop and co-ordinate efforts to raise awareness of the importance of UL2272 certification and of the fire risks arising from improper charging and illegal modification of the vehicles, LTA said.

LTA adopted the UL2272 standard in September last year to improve fire safety. It also mandated that all PMDs — which include electric scooters, hoverboards and unicycles — sold from July this year be certified to the standard.

The safety standard evaluates devices at the “system level”, which means it covers the full spectrum of use conditions, instead of assessing only individual parts. This significantly lowers the risk of fires. Certification entails a series of electrical, mechanical and environmental tests.

Apart from safety certification, it will also be compulsory for all registered electric scooters to be inspected from April 1 next year.

By early last month, 90,000 electric scooters had been registered, with only 10 per cent declared UL2272-compliant.

On Sunday, the LTA reminded PMD owners to practise safe charging. This includes charging devices in a cool area, and “not charging them near combustible materials and leaving them plugged in overnight or unattended”.

PMD fires have continued unabated in recent months. Last Monday, a fire broke out at a high-rise HDB flat in Sembawang town. Preliminary investigations showed that it was caused by a PMD that was being charged.

In the first half of this year alone, there were 49 reported fires linked to PMDs. There were 52 such fires reported in the whole of last year.