A video has emerged showing firefighters hosing down a Voi UK e-scooter after it started burning in a man’s home.
Rental user Tiernan Power took the scooter outside and then called 999 after smoke ‘burst out’ and began to ‘engulf the whole area’.
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The incident happened on Gloucester Road, near to The Cider Press, at around 6pm on December 4 - a Saturday night when many people were around.
It resulted in Voi temporally stopping the use of long-term rental scooters - but the service is expected to resume completely next week following an investigation.
Mr Power, aged 21, a software engineering student at the University of West of England, had been a long-term rental customer of Voi for around a year.
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He kept his designated scooter, which he paid £35 a month for, in the hallway to his home which he shares with five other people.


Recalling the incident, he said: “I live on the top floor and everyone else was out, and I came downstairs to go to the shop when I noticed a light on the scooter.
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“I took a closer look and there was a smell of burning with a small bit of smoke coming out of it, so I took the scooter outside the front door.
“A couple of minutes later, smoke burst out and I called 999.
“There were burning fumes and smoke had began to engulf the whole area, which was crazy as it was a busy time on a Saturday night on Gloucester Road.”
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Firefighters from Avon and Fire Rescue Service arrived and spent more than two hours hosing down the e-scooter.
A hazardous substance team was also deployed to dispose of the smoking battery.
It is believed that an electrical fault had caused the lithium battery on the scooter to begin burning.
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Mr Power said: “The crews said they’d never seen anything like it before, and that I was lucky to have spotted it when I did.
“The scooter was in the only place of exit from the house.”


Mr Power received a call the next day from the general manager at Voi UK, Jack Samler - but the student has not yet decided on getting a replacement scooter.
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The long-term rental scheme, different to the ‘hop on and hop off’ e-scooters, see users rent their own, personal scooter which they can keep in their home.
However, following the incident, all users in the city were informed and asked to keep their e-scooters outside as a pre-caution, said a Voi spokesperson.
In a statement, the company said: “The long-term rental service is back up and running and we are expecting it to be 80% tomorrow and 100% by next week - all affected users have been informed.
“The service was only temporarily stopped as a result of this smoking scooter but following our investigation, the service resumed pretty quickly.
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“We’re expecting the service to be 100% for next week, so many are already riding the long-term rental service but a few are still keeping their e-scooters outside until they are ready to go.”
Voi e-scooters are available for hire through a trial led by the West of England Combined Authority which has been extended until March.
Last month, the trial was extended until March 2022. The scheme commenced in a bid to help reduce cars on the road.
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This week, Transport for London (TfL) banned e-scooters from public transport in London after the battery to one scooter exploded last month.
A safety review carried out by TfL found the fires were caused by faulty third-party lithium batteries.
The move has been backed by the London Fire Brigade which was called to more than 50 blazes involving e-scooters and e-bikes this year.