Eleven people are out of their homes after a fire broke out in the basement of a detached home early Monday morning.

Firefighters were called to the 2900 block of East Georgia Street around 5:45 a.m.

Matthew Trudeau with Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services said an e-bike battery charging in the basement caused the fire.

Everyone was able to get out of the house safely, but two people were injured and taken to the hospital in stable condition, Trudeau said.

“Fire investigators went there, observed multiple e-bikes on the property and multiple batteries being charged inside,” Trudeau said.

“At least one of them failing and causing fire to rapidly to grow and expand inside this area, causing other material to catch fire.”

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Chanel Carson, a neighbour, heard a loud rumbling and the sound of breaking glass around 5:40 a.m.

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“There was just … so much smoke everywhere,” she said.

“Everybody had just called the fire department and they were on their way.”

Carson said it was terrifying to see the flames and smoke.

“Many of the residents who live there are delivery drivers and they use e-bikes to make deliveries, so that’s really unfortunate,” she said.

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Trudeau said when e-bike batteries are maintained and handled correctly, they are safe.

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However, when someone modifies a battery or buys an aftermarket one, that is when they can fail and catch fire.

“The risk of danger is there when they do fail and they do fail sometimes quite spectacularly,” Trudeau added.

He stressed that people should only replace the batteries with the correct unit from the manufacturer and should not modify the battery in any way. If it is damaged, it should be replaced by a model from the manufacturer.

Last year, Trudeau said they responded to about one fire a week caused by an e-bike and so far, they are on track to match that number this year.

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