E-scooter starts fire at Casey House

Firefighters responded to an e-scooter fire at Casey House just before 3 p.m. Saturday.

Casey House is a specialty hospital for people living with or at risk of HIV, located near Jarvis Street and Isabella Street.

Toronto Fire says it extinguished the fire by 3:10 p.m. Paramedics were also on site and say they transported six patients elsewhere.

The small fire started in an inpatient room that was vacant at the time, communications director Lisa McDonald said in an email.

The fire seemed to be caused by a lithium battery, McDonald said, adding that e-bikes and e-scooters are not allowed inside Casey House.

Twelve inpatient clients were evacuated, she said.

Outpatient services will open as scheduled on Monday morning, McDonald said. "We will be monitoring over the weekend as we learn more."

Earlier this year, Toronto's fire chief Jim Jessop called on the federal government to increase regulation on lithium-ion batteries, calling battery fires related to e-bikes and e-scooters "the largest growing fire safety risk in the city."

The number of fires sparked by lithium-ion batteries in Toronto has more than doubled in the span of two years, the city says.

From 2022 to 2024, the number of fires jumped from 29 to 76, according to a city news release.