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Almost as if by sleight of hand, e-bike and e-scooter explosions – and the subsequent fires they cause – attract plenty of media attention.

But that is not where all the danger lies in human interaction with lithium-ion batteries.

“The things that are blowing up the most are vapes,” Randy Narine, president of the lithium-ion battery testing company Clean Core Research, told the Toronto Sun. “There is a bigger issue with vapes than e-bikes.”

“The reason e-bikes and e-scooters are there is because they are in your face. They are huge, the fires are massive but the vapes burn out (quickly), but the damage that can cause to somebody is insane,” he explained.

Clean Core Research is a Canadian not-for-profit corporation. Their work focuses on the emerging risks associated with lithium-ion batteries, hydrogen systems, energy storage, electric transportation, and other clean energy technologies.

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Narine says there is plenty of evidence available on social media to back up his claims.

“Just Google a bunch of the vape fires and you will see how dangerous they are,” he said. “They don’t take much (to explode). And they are everywhere.”

Narine says it is the wild west in the marketplace when it comes to rules and regulations surrounding vapes, or electronic cigarette as they functionally known.

Some of the toxic gases released during an explosion include phosphoryl fluoride, hydrogen chloride, hydrogen cyanide, hydrogen fluoride and carbon monoxide. The explosion begins when graphite and lithium cobalt oxide mix to create a short circuit situation that can lead to rapid overheating, smoke, or fire.

“The vape industry isn’t even a regulated industry,” Narine said. “They are made as a quick, cheap and disposable (unit). You see kids using them all the time. Say a vape is $20, how much certification goes into a vape and the batteries in them? They are rechargeable, but they are meant for a finite period of time.”

A simple search on the internet says vapes cost anywhere between $15 to $50.

As the saying goes: big things come in small packages.

A quick bang

“A vape explosion will probably get up to 200-300 degrees Celsius (followed by) a quick bang,” Narine said. “It is small and it doesn’t last long, like 10 seconds.

“And it doesn’t take much for your clothing to burn, especially at those temperatures. And they go out very quickly. A lot of times a fire caused by a vape might look like something else, and the vape gets destroyed and there is not much evidence of it afterwards.”

And similar to lithium-ion batteries on scooters or bikes, if vapes are shaken, sat on, punctured or left in places where temperatures get excessively hot, they will explode.

“If you look at where vapes are placed and stored, there are always combustibles around,” Narine said. “An e-bike will burn and light bigger things on fire, but the vape is being stored with combustibles, in your purse, pocket, (the centre console of a car) or wherever.”

Nadine couldn’t put an exact number on what percentage of vapes use lithium-ion batteries, but there is a 100% foolproof way for the user to know what they’re buying.

“If it is rechargeable, then it is a lithium-ion battery.,” he said.

The Toronto Fire Service “identified two incidents where the category was Vape Pen/E-Cigarette between 2021 and 2026, YTD (year-to-date),” says Capt. Sarah Jones, captain, public information section, Toronto Fire Services.

ganderson@postmedia.com