Family Loses Home and E-Bike Business in Battery Fire

Mick Parkhill woke to a noise at about 3:00am and saw light beneath his home in South Murwillumbah, in northern New South Wales. Within hours, the family had lost its house, its e-bike business and its dogs.

“

I was asleep and heard a noise. I thought it was someone breaking in and I just ran to the front of the house and … it looked like the lights were on underneath the house.

Parkhill said he tried to use a fire blanket while his family of four escaped. He also tried several times to get the dogs out, but could not. Fire and Rescue crews wearing hazardous-material suits took about three hours to bring the blaze under control.

The family ran Valley E-bike from the home and a shed near the start of the Tweed Valley Rail Trail. Parkhill said about 70 bikes, worth at least $500,000, were on the property. He knew lithium-ion batteries posed a risk and had built a separate storage area, but said he had left the batteries elsewhere after several exhausting days.

“

We knew the risk, we played Russian roulette and I guess we paid the price.

“We knew the risk, we played Russian roulette and I guess we paid the price,” Parkhill said. He described the decision as complacency and stupidity, saying he had done the same thing more than a thousand times without incident.

“

There’s nothing to lift now. I’ve lost my livelihood. I’ve lost everything.

The house had been a renovated buyback property from the 2022 floods and was due to be lifted the following month. “There’s nothing to lift now. I’ve lost my livelihood. I’ve lost everything,” Parkhill said. He hopes to rebuild the business. NSW Fire and Rescue Northern Rivers Inspector Tim Climo said e-bikes and lithium batteries make such fires particularly difficult to extinguish.

“

Due to the e-bikes that were under the house and lithium batteries, once they start going, they’re very difficult to put out.