An electric scooter parked at the veranda of a house in Vaniyambadi caught fire on Sunday.

The police said S. Ihsanuallh, 32, who runs a tea shop at Shakirabad, a thickly populated neighbourhood in Vaniyambadi town, had parked his scooter, near the electricity meter box, at the veranda of his house for charging before going sleep the previous night. Around 1 a.m, smoke started emanating from the bike and a fire broke out.

As the fire spread to other parts of the veranda, including the meter box, Mr. Ihsanuallah woke up, along with his parents, who together stayed on the ground floor, while his elder brother and his family stayed on the first floor. They tried to put off the fire by pouring water on the bike. But the heat coming out of the e-bike was so high that it broke the clay tiles of the floor.

On an alert, fire tenders from Vaniyambadi and the police reached the spot. However, the vehicle and the meter box were gutted. Initial investigation revealed that Mr. Ihsanuallah brought the vehicle a year ago. The police said charging the vehicle for long could have caused the fire.

The police said this was not the first time that electric scooters had caught fire. In March, 2022, a 49-year-old man and his daughter died of suffocation after his new e-bike went up in flames in front of his house on Balaraman Street at Chinna Allapuram near Old Town in Vellore.