How to check the condition of your lithium battery, causing the fatal fire of Reims?

On June 6, 2025, a fire in an HLM died of four people in Reims. At the origin of the start of fire, the battery of an electric scooter. And it is precisely to avoid this type of drama that a national prevention campaign was launched Wednesday, June 18.

A hammer blow on a drone lithium-ion battery releases lithium gas, causing smoke clearance, then flames of 40 centimeters. This is the demonstration of Jérôme Engrand, firefighter and fire prevention trainer, on a stand of the prevention campaign settled in Paris, on the banks of the Seine, launched after the deadly fire in Reims. “To which you attended is a thermal excavation linked to a mechanical shock. This thermal runaway is what could occur after a road accident with an electric vehicle”, he explains.

A shock on a sidewalk with a scooter or the battery of your bicycle which falls during manipulation: all this can therefore cause the explosion of the battery. And there are a few warning signs that can put the chip in your ear.

“If the battery swells, it is one of the first signs that makes your battery react badly. In addition, if you hear a noise, a” poc “when you load your device it is happening in the battery. After, there will be a first smoke clearance. It can be very fast, or long enough”, continues the firefighter.

And to the slightest doubt about the condition of a battery, the ideal is to be able to store the device outdoors to avoid any risk of fire inside your home. There is a lot of awareness -raising work to do, since according to a study of The Association Insurance Prévention, 8 out of 10 French people frequently adopt risk behaviors with their phone or computer battery.

The smallest batteries can also be a problem. This is the observation that Adrien Ballet made, a user experience researcher within the Calyxis association. He questioned a thousand French people, some of whom told him their misadventures with small batteries.

He relates the misadventures of Christelle, 48, “Who tells us that it could have set fire to his house”. “Before going to bed, she connected her connected speaker, in her living room, but with the charger of her phone. But this charger was not necessarily adapted in terms of voltage. And the next morning, when she woke up, she realized that her speaker was burning, and that the surface on which the enclosure rested had started to blacken”, he details.

“We also have Alba, 16, a large smartphone user”who has “Established her phone next to her bed, and then she got dinner.” “And at one point, her dad, she felt a burned smell, and her phone was actually caught fire”he said.

These device overheating is mostly linked to battery deterioration, which is avoidable. The first advice is to use the original charger of the device. You must also avoid loading your phone or tablet overnight and avoid loading your battery 100%. 80% being ideal.

Finally, you should not use your device either while it is recharged, as this over-sucks the battery. But a high school student present on the stand of this prevention campaign believes that these advice is complicated. “I will still try to apply, but it seems a little complicated to load all night, wake up and unplug”. The main thing is at least to make an effort, especially with your mobile phone. The most used French device, which is also responsible for half of the incidents related to lithium batteries.