Capital City Fire/Rescue responded to a call Thursday evening of a fire in a residential structure in the Mendenhall Valley.
The fire was extinguished without structural damage, according to a CCFR social media post, and one occupant was treated for minor smoke inhalation on-scene.
The cause of the fire involves a battery-powered scooter, said fire marshal Dan Jager in a phone interview.
[Montana Creek Bridge closed to all vehicles due to damage]
“It was definitely the scooter that started the fire,” Jager said. “As far as, was it a charger malfunction or the product, we’re not sure.”
The call came in at 7:20 p.m. that a fire had broken out at a residence on the 4100 block of Taku Boulevard, according to the social media post. CCFR personnel arriving on scene found that occupants had used a neighbor’s fire extinguisher to suppress the fire for long enough for CCFR personnel to completely eliminate it.
Jager said the department is reaching out to the manufacturer to see where the failure point was.
Non-manufacturer chargers can sometimes cause electrical issues, leading to fires, Jager said.
“Sometimes people get chargers that aren’t from the manufacturer. They plug it in and notice, hey, this charger is getting really hot,” Jager said. “That’s where you can have some problems. If it’s allowing it to charge too fast, it could be damaging the battery.”
The simplest way to avoid this is to purchase chargers from the manufacturer of the device that needs to be charged rather than getting a third-party charger, Jager said.
The investigation is ongoing, Jager said.
• Contact reporter Michael S. Lockett at 757-621-1197 or mlockett@juneauempire.com.
