Chilworth mum warns against modified e-bikes after home destroyed

A mother has warned about the dangers of modified e-bikes after a fire left her family homeless and killed one of her kittens.

Emma Wills, from Chilworth in Surrey, moved into the property five months before a modified e-bike charging in her living room caught fire at the end of January.

“It was devastating to go from a fresh start to losing everything so quickly,” he said.

The e-bike, owned by a family friend, had recently been modified using a conversion kit purchased online.

A total of 23% of UK pushbike owners surveyed were considering converting their pushbike to an e-bike, according to new research from consumer safety charity Electrical Safety First.

The charity said conversion kits were cheaper to buy than a fully built e-bike but involved major risks.

Product safety engineer Giuseppe Capanna said: “Kits consisting of substandard components can cause devastating fires.

“Currently technology has outpaced regulations, which means there are no current safety standards for conversion kits.”

Mrs Wills, who has three children, said: “I lost my mother in 2021 so all the memories and emotional memories I had of her are gone.

“They can never be replaced and it breaks my heart.”

She added: “This has had a huge impact on my two youngest children. They don’t want to go out anymore.

“This doesn’t just affect one part of your life, it affects everything.”

Miss Wills said it was “heartbreaking” to lose the kitten, who had been hand-reared by the family since he was four weeks old.

In 2024, the Product Safety and Standards Office received 170 reports of e-bike fires, with 45% confirmed to be caused by converted e-bikes.

The actual number is expected to be much higher, as not all fire and rescue services report consumer product fires to OPSS.