Battery safety data come from several different populations: news reports, worldwide incident compilations, fire-department investigations and city enforcement records. This overview keeps those measures separate while covering lithium-ion fire trends, injuries, fatalities, devices, buildings, recalls and prevention activity.
Key Battery Safety Statistics
The most quotable battery safety findings include:
- NIST collected 245 lithium-ion battery fire incident news reports worldwide in 2024, using its Google News collection.
- NIST collected 736 lithium-ion battery fire incident news reports worldwide from 2015 through 2024, a search-report total rather than a census of fires.
- UL’s worldwide incident reporting data contained 1,560 lithium-ion battery incidents through 2023 year-to-date, compiled from varied public sources.
- UL’s worldwide incident reporting data recorded 621 injuries through 2023 year-to-date, counting reported injuries.
- UL’s worldwide incident reporting data recorded 111 fatalities through 2023 year-to-date, counting reported fatalities.
- New York City recorded 277 lithium-ion battery fires in 2024, according to FDNY.
- New York City recorded 268 lithium-ion battery fires in 2023, according to FDNY.
- FDNY recorded 6 lithium-ion battery-related deaths in New York City in 2024, compared with 18 in 2023.
- FDNY reported 150 injuries involving e-mobility lithium-ion battery fires in New York City in 2023.
- Phoenix Fire investigated 62 fires through September 2025 where a lithium-ion battery was found in the area of origin, without treating that finding as proof of causation.
- Phoenix recorded 19 power-tool lithium-ion battery fire investigations through September 2025, the largest listed device category in that release.
- Phoenix recorded 12 electric-vehicle lithium-ion battery fire investigations through September 2025, an investigation count rather than a rate per vehicle.
- Phoenix recorded 24 single-family-structure lithium-ion battery fire investigations through September 2025, based on area-of-origin cases.
- NIST reported 550 lithium-ion battery fires in the UL database for the United States over the database’s full period, with coverage and reporting limitations.
- U.S. fire departments received reports of 1.39 million fires in 2023, a total for all fires rather than battery-specific fires.
- FDNY inspected 585 e-bike shops in New York City in 2024, an enforcement activity measure.
- FDNY issued 426 summonses through its lithium-ion battery task force in New York City in 2024.
- An Anker power-bank recall announced in September 2025 covered about 481,000 units in the United States, a recall quantity rather than a count of failures or fires.
Contents
- Key Battery Safety Statistics
- Reported Lithium-Ion Fire Trends
- Battery Safety Injuries, Fatalities and Fire Severity
- Battery Safety Data by Device and Application
- Electric-Vehicle and Mobility Battery Fire Measurements
- Battery Safety in Homes, Buildings and Energy Storage
- Battery Safety Reporting, Recalls and Prevention Activity
Reported Lithium-Ion Fire Trends
NIST’s Google News collection shows a rising number of reported lithium-ion battery fire incidents in its selected global news sample, especially in the final three years. These are search-report counts, not prevalence rates, because older reports may be missing and the collection is not a census.
| Year | NIST Google News reports | Geography and measure |
|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 15 | Global reports collected by NIST |
| 2016 | 30 | Global reports collected by NIST |
| 2017 | 28 | Global reports collected by NIST |
| 2018 | 44 | Global reports collected by NIST |
| 2019 | 46 | Global reports collected by NIST |
| 2020 | 40 | Global reports collected by NIST |
| 2021 | 47 | Global reports collected by NIST |
| 2022 | 68 | Global reports collected by NIST |
| 2023 | 173 | Global reports collected by NIST |
| 2024 | 245 | Global reports collected by NIST |
NIST recorded 736 reports across 2015–2024 in this collection. The source describes the series as a lower-bound search collection, so changes may reflect reporting and search visibility as well as changes in incidents. NIST, “Understanding the Risk of Lithium-Ion Battery Fires – multi-source data analysis”
A different population appears in UL’s worldwide incident reporting data for 1995–2023 year-to-date: 1,560 incidents, 621 injuries and 111 fatalities. UL compiles reports from varied public sources, and these totals are reported cases rather than a complete registry. UL, “Take C.H.A.R.G.E. of Battery Safety”
Battery Safety Injuries, Fatalities and Fire Severity
The consequences recorded in these sources vary by geography and category. UL’s cumulative worldwide consumer-product records included 1,159 injuries and 114 fatalities through 2023 year-to-date, while its micro-mobility records included 1,140 injuries and 214 fatalities over the same reporting period.
Those category totals should not be read as rates or added to the overall UL totals. Micro-mobility is a UL category, and the figures represent reported cases within that category. UL, “Take C.H.A.R.G.E. of Battery Safety”
New York City provides a separate local view. FDNY recorded 18 lithium-ion battery-related deaths in 2023 and 6 in 2024, and reported a 67% decrease between those years; the comparison is FDNY’s city-specific year-over-year measure, not a national rate.
FDNY also reported 78 total civilian fire fatalities in New York City in 2024, a broader measure that includes all civilian fire deaths rather than only battery-related deaths. FDNY, “FDNY Commissioner Robert S. Tucker Announces Significant Progress in the Battle Against Lithium-Ion Battery Fires”
In 2023, FDNY reported 150 injuries involving e-mobility lithium-ion battery fires in New York City. This is an e-mobility-specific city count and does not cover every battery device. FDNY, “Lithium-Ion Battery Safety”
Battery Safety Data by Device and Application
Phoenix Fire’s September 2025 public release counted investigations through September in which a lithium-ion battery was found in the area of origin. The release recorded 62 investigations, but the battery finding alone does not establish causation.
| Device or application | Phoenix investigations through September 2025 |
|---|---|
| Power tools | 19 |
| Portable electronics | 12 |
| Micro-mobility | 12 |
| Electric vehicles | 7 |
| Remote-powered devices | 5 |
| Other or multiple devices | 5 |
| Energy-storage systems | 2 |
The device categories show why “battery fire” is not one uniform exposure. Portable electronics and micro-mobility each accounted for 12 Phoenix area-of-origin investigations, while energy-storage systems accounted for 2; none of these counts is a device-specific fire rate. Phoenix Fire Department, “Lithium-Ion Battery Fire Investigations: September 2025 Public Release Summary”
NIST reported that 28% of UL database incidents in 2024 involved consumer products, 65% involved mobility devices, and 6% involved electric vehicles. Fewer than 1% involved energy-storage systems, represented by 33 incidents; these are shares of the UL database, not rates for the products or sectors. NIST, “Understanding the Risk of Lithium-Ion Battery Fires – multi-source data analysis”
Electric-Vehicle and Mobility Battery Fire Measurements
Phoenix’s annual investigation counts distinguish electric vehicles from micro-mobility, but they do not provide denominators such as vehicles or devices in use. Phoenix recorded 12 electric-vehicle investigations in 2023, 6 in 2024 and 17 micro-mobility investigations in 2023.
Through September 2025, Phoenix recorded 21 micro-mobility investigations and 12 electric-vehicle investigations. Each count means a lithium-ion battery was found in the area of origin, not that investigators established the battery as the cause.
| Phoenix category | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 YTD through September |
|---|---|---|---|
| Electric-vehicle investigations | 12 | 6 | 12 |
| Micro-mobility investigations | 17 | Not supplied | 21 |
UL defines its micro-mobility category as devices travelling below 20 mph. The threshold is a classification definition, not a safety outcome or a risk estimate. UL, “Take C.H.A.R.G.E. of Battery Safety”
FDNY recorded 268 lithium-ion battery fires in New York City in 2023 and 277 in 2024. Of those, FDNY classified 90 as non-structural in 2023 and 133 in 2024; non-structural means outdoors rather than in a home, business or apartment. FDNY, “FDNY Commissioner Robert S. Tucker Announces Significant Progress in the Battle Against Lithium-Ion Battery Fires”
Battery Safety in Homes, Buildings and Energy Storage
Phoenix’s 2025 YTD investigations also show where batteries were found relative to structures. These are local area-of-origin investigations through September and do not automatically prove that the battery caused the fire.
| Location or structure | Phoenix investigations through September 2025 |
|---|---|
| Single-family structures | 24 |
| Commercial structures | 15 |
| Garage or shed | 6 |
| Vehicle structures | 5 |
| Multi-family structures | 5 |
| Mobile homes | 2 |
NIST notes 550 lithium-ion battery fires in the UL database for the United States over the database’s full period covered by its analysis. That figure reflects UL database coverage and reporting practices, not a national fire census.
For scale, NIST reports 1.39 million fires were reported to U.S. fire departments in 2023, while about 644,000 U.S. fire incidents were reported to NFIRS that year. NFIRS participation is voluntary, and its legacy fields do not reliably identify lithium-ion involvement, so neither total is a battery-specific denominator. NIST, “Understanding the Risk of Lithium-Ion Battery Fires – multi-source data analysis”
Battery Safety Reporting, Recalls and Prevention Activity
Prevention data measure activity rather than directly measured reductions in fires. FDNY’s lithium-ion battery task force inspected 585 e-bike shops in New York City in 2024, which FDNY reported was 25% higher than in 2023.
The same task force issued 426 summonses, 138 violation orders, 32 criminal summonses and 7 vacate orders with the Department of Buildings in 2024. These are enforcement counts, not incident counts. FDNY, “FDNY Commissioner Robert S. Tucker Announces Significant Progress in the Battle Against Lithium-Ion Battery Fires”
FDNY completed 194,585 fire-prevention inspections in New York City in 2024, a reported 15% increase from 2023. The total covers all fire-prevention inspections, not only battery-related work. FDNY, “FDNY Commissioner Robert S. Tucker Announces Significant Progress in the Battle Against Lithium-Ion Battery Fires”
Recall and education measures add different kinds of scale:
- Phoenix’s September 18, 2025 release reported an Anker power-bank recall covering about 481,000 units in the United States; this is a recall quantity, not a count of confirmed failures or fires. Phoenix Fire Department, “Lithium-Ion Battery Fire Investigations: September 2025 Public Release Summary”
- FDNY’s Fire Safety Education Unit delivered 3,160 presentations in New York City in 2024 and estimated that the presentations reached 508,975 New Yorkers. The reach figure is an estimate, not a count of unique verified participants. FDNY, “FDNY Commissioner Robert S. Tucker Announces Significant Progress in the Battle Against Lithium-Ion Battery Fires”
Together, these figures describe reporting, investigation, enforcement, recall and education activity. They should remain distinct from incident rates because the underlying populations, definitions, periods and geographies are different.