CHILDREN and teenagers at three schools in the Lake District will be learning to rap about the importance of safe charging of e-bikes and e-scooters in a new youth initiative.

Goodly Dale Community Primary School, the Windermere School, and The Lakes School will each hold sessions in January and February for their pupils in Years six, seven, and eight to work with local award-winning rap duo JD and Swerve, from Horizon Studio in Barrow. 

The project, run by the Bowness and Windermere Community Care Trust with funding from Electrical Safety First, will engage around 60 pupils from the schools, helping raise awareness about safety issues relating to e-scooters and e-bikes, especially when using and charging them. It follows previous warnings by the Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service of a “concerning” rise in e-bike fires.

Simone Backhouse, project manager at the Trust, said: “We offer a different way of learning and remembering safety tips from a scientific viewpoint and by using professional rappers to assist the students who will help write a rap and record it.

“I watched the regional news about charging fires and noticed that Cumbria Fire and Rescue issued a warning about not recharging devices with lithium batteries overnight due to the risk of fire, in particular with e-scooters and e-bikes which seems to be on the increase.”

Around half of all domestic fires in the UK are caused by electricity, with most of those arising from electrical products. 

The Battery Breakdown campaign from Electrical Safety First highlights the growing concerns over the rise in fatalities, injuries and devastating fires from e-bikes and e-scooters.

Fires from the lithium-ion batteries used to power these devices have killed people in the UK, left others hospitalised or seriously injured, and caused extensive property damage. In the first half of 2023, firefighters in London were called to an e-bike or e-scooter fire once every two days on average, a 60 per cent increase compared to the same period in 2022.