Rad Power Bikes store catches fire in California

Screenshot from an OC Street Live stream January 18 appears to show some people and firefighters near a couple bikes lying on the curb outside the Rad Power Bike retail store in Huntington Beach, California.

Rad Power Bikes' retail store in Huntington Beach, California, caught fire January 18. The store was closed at the time, and nobody was injured.

Rad confirmed that there was a thermal incident" in their store but said the cause of the fire has not been confirmed. Huntington Beach Fire Department also has not released additional information, telling Bicycle Retailer and Industry News that the incident is currently under investigation.

A video from OC Street Live shows what appears to be two bikes on the curb near the responding fire trucks. There's no confirmation at this time that a Rad Power battery was the cause, though the company has been under close scrutiny in recent months due to fire risks from their batteries. The Consumer Protection Safety Commission issued a safety warning in November for two models of the company's batteries after receiving 31 reports of fires. The Minnesota Star Tribune published a story in December about a former St. Paul city councilmember whose house was destroyed after he says he saw his unplugged Rad battery in flames in his basement. The CPSC in their warning specifically noted that fires could occur even when the batteries are not charging and are not in use.

CPSC safety warnings very often include product recalls, but Rad took the rare step of choosing to fight the safety warning. The company refuses to issue a recall to their customers and has even told customers that it is safe to continue using them. The Seattle-headquartered company also argued in November that one of the reasons they couldn't do a recall is because it would put them out of business. A month later, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and customers with CPSC-identified batteries are conspicuously not on their list of creditors owed. The company is still operating while in bankruptcy, so it's future remains uncertain.

Seattle Bike Blog wrote in December that customers with affected batteries are set to be screwed as creditors carve up the company's $32 million in assets (versus $72.8 million in liabilities, not counting all the people with CPSC-identified batteries). We argued that these customers need to be included in this process, and that someone like the Washington Attorney General or some other public servant with the relevant power should step in to make sure customers get what they are owed. If the company's assets are going to be divided, then at least some of those assets should go toward making sure their customers' homes are safe from identified fire hazards.

There are also public safety and public interest issues at play here. If this company closes completely without getting these batteries out of people's homes, then the public will be left dealing with the problem. U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (owed $8.4 million, the single largest Rad creditor) can get in line behind the people with potential bombs inside their homes.

If you are a Rad Power Bike owner, the battery models included in the safety warning are HL-RP-S1304 and RP-1304. Despite what Rad says, Seattle Bike Blog strongly encourages owners of these batteries to take the CPSC warning seriously and protect your home and loved ones by disposing of it at a local hazardous waste collection facility as the CPSC warning advises. I know it sucks, and I wish Rad were doing the responsible and ethical thing by offering you a replacement or refund. You do not deserve to be forced to choose between rendering your e-bike useless or potentially risking your home and the people in it. It's not fair, and it's not right.