Radmini electrical fire

[RockSlider55]

I do not have a Radmini myself, but saw this post on the rad owners Group on Facebook ...https://www.facebook.com/groups/radpowerowners/permalink/3243362512614674

[Radio Runner]

No facebook here so I cant read it. How did it ignite?

[santacruzpaul]

No facebook here ALSO, so I cant read it. How did it ignite?

I do not have a Radmini myself, but saw this post on the rad owners Group on Facebook ...https://www.facebook.com/groups/radpowerowners/permalink/3243362512614674

[RockSlider55]

Sorry about that guys. Here is what the guy that posted wrote ...... Nearly missed losing my camper to a fire. Last night at 3am I woke up to the smell of smoke in my 5th wheel, I got everyone up and out and found that my Radmini had caught the furniture blanket on fire. Very lucky I caught this in time before it caught the actual rig on fire. Upon inspection it appears the wire/connector pictured below started heating up and melted my tool pouch which spread to the furniture blanket, the battery appears to be warped on one side as well. I have traveled with these bikes stored in here for 3yrs now and am baffled as to how this happened. They were not plugged in or charging I'm posting this because I know there are a lot of people that travel as I do with our bikes in our RV storage. If I hadn't of been home I could have lost everything I own including our pets. Be safe out there.

[RockSlider55]

Images of incident

[Radio Runner]

Scary!

Maybe the connection was a bit loose and started arching.

[Tony]

Would this cable connection be live ? Assuming the bike was switched off when stored.

[RockSlider55]

I see the post as now been removed by the author from the Facebook group . I think the general consensus on the post was the fire started due to two factors .The battery may have been left on by mistake & the small pouch shown in pictures over time had been chafing into the power cable, causing a short circuit in electrical systems .

[Eric7]

The results were bad and I sympathize. I am not taking sides and I am trying to learn something from this.

1.  If the battery was turned off with the key, this would not have happened because the power would be shut down?

2.  The short must have been contained with just enough current to do damage and not enough current to blow the fuse.  Or else the fuse would have blown and the short would have shut down. 

3.  Lesson for me.  It is best to always remove and turn off the battery to avoid a fire when the ebicycle is unattended.

[Ddaybc]

As Eric7 says, good lesson for us. However it is safe to store the battery on your bike as long as it's upright, turned off and no key in it. Rad even says we can recharge the battery while it's on our bikes although they recommend we remove the batteries during transport.
That looks like a 5th wheel or travel trailer storage compartment and I suspect the battery was left in the bike, it was laid on its side and, maybe, the key was in it. It would also vibrate as the vehicle was moving down a road so any chafing would be exacerbated during transport.
Even though we don't know the details about this incident I'm happy it was discovered soon enough that no significant damage was done.