Noida: A day after sparks at a basement EV-charging point set off a blaze in a Mamura building that killed two, a TOI visit to urban villages found similar charging practices common in Harola, Barola, Hoshiarpur, Raipur and other localities.Inside homes and parking areas, e-rickshaws and e-scooters are routinely plugged into household sockets or roadside power points, often using extension boards and makeshift wiring. Vehicles are left charging for hours, sometimes overnight, increasing the risk of overheating, short circuits and fires as EV adoption outpaces the availability of regulated charging infrastructure.Fire officials said domestic electrical systems lack safeguards such as surge protection and thermal cut-offs needed for prolonged high-current charging. The risk is greater in densely populated neighbourhoods with narrow lanes that can delay fire engines.Typically, an e-scooter requires a five- to 16-ampere charging socket depending on the model, while an e-rickshaw needs 16 amperes. It is not just the socket. For a housing society or home charger, the practical minimum is a separately sized cable from the distribution board, a dedicated circuit breaker, suitable RCD protection, proper earthing and a fixed BIS-compliant EVSE, installed after checking the premises’ sanctioned load.Mukesh Sharma of Harola said many paying guest (PG) accommodations and rented houses in the area housed delivery executives and e-rickshaw drivers who charged their vehicle batteries directly from ordinary domestic sockets in stilt parking areas or basements that often house a building’s electrical panels, a combination he called a “disaster waiting to happen”.In Barola too, most property owners have rented out their buildings for PG accommodation and exercise little oversight over who lives there or under what conditions. Reema Singh, who has lived in the area for years, said e-rickshaw drivers often charged multiple vehicles from a single power point via loosely strung plugs and extension cords. “Many leave battery chargers directly inside or on top of e-rickshaws during charging,” Singh said, while calling for a clear govt policy defining authorised charging points, along with a dedicated helpline or reporting mechanism for residents to flag unsafe charging practices.Chief fire officer Pradeep Chaubey said a large number of e-rickshaw drivers and delivery workers charged vehicles overnight on domestic connections not built for the load EV batteries require, often running multiple batteries off extension boards or unauthorised connections. He said chargers generate significant internal heat and placing them on vehicle seats could increase immediate fire and explosion hazard due to heat entrapment and vibration.He said lithium-ion battery fires burn at very high temperatures and can undergo “thermal runaway”, a chain reaction in which internal heat sustains continuous combustion. Such fires, he said, can reignite even after appearing extinguished, requiring large volumes of water and specialised firefighting methods.
A resident of Hoshiarpur charges a scooter on a regular plug point on Thursday
Officials said many vehicle owners used uncertified chargers or locally assembled battery packs to cut costs, while overcharging, charging damaged packs, or modifying batteries outside safety standards raised the likelihood of an explosion or fire. The danger is compounded in buildings where e-rickshaws are parked on the ground floor or in basements while families live on the floors above, since a fire in the parking area can block staircases and exits with toxic smoke, trapping residents inside.In the Mamura, officials said a battery being charged from a normal socket had ignited the fire, which spread to two-wheelers parked nearby that exploded in rapid succession.Fire officials urged residents to use only manufacturer-approved chargers, avoid unsupervised overnight charging, and never use damaged cables or overloaded extension boards. “Vehicles should be charged in well-ventilated areas away from combustible material. Battery packs that show signs of swelling, overheating or physical damage should be replaced,” an official said.Abhijeet Sinha, programme director for Ease of Doing Business and National Highways for EV Pilot, said the pace of EV and battery adoption had outstripped the rollout of preventive regulation, leaving substandard batteries and vehicles in circulation even as battery-swapping technology gains ground. He said a set of 12 recommendations — four each on regulatory, administrative and technical measures — had been submitted to NITI Aayog and other bodies in 2022 under the NHEV pilot project, including Aadhaar-linked identification for batteries and mandatory disclosure of risk, insurance, third-party claims, depreciation and periodic testing. Of these, he said, only the Aadhaar mandate for batteries had been implemented, with the rest still under consideration.
