Charging your phone on your bed? Firefighters warn of hidden dangers

SEIGO­NIE MO­HAMMED

Cli­mate Change Ed­i­tor

Res­i­den­tial fires in Trinidad and To­ba­go have in­creased by 15 per cent in 2026; fire­fight­ers are urg­ing cit­i­zens to take a clos­er look at every­day habits that could put their homes at risk.

Charg­ing your cell­phone on your bed might seem harm­less, but it is one habit the Trinidad and To­ba­go Fire Ser­vice (TTFS) wants peo­ple to stop.

“I'm sure that all of us at some point in time would have charged our phones while it's on the bed. That's a no-no. Soft sur­faces and lithi­um-ion prod­ucts don't go to­geth­er,” Fire Sub Of­fi­cer Emon Smart warned.

His ad­vice comes as the TTFS record­ed 473 res­i­den­tial fires be­tween Jan­u­ary and Au­gust 2026, com­pared with 410 dur­ing the same pe­ri­od in 2025, an in­crease of ap­prox­i­mate­ly 15 per cent.

While the Fire Ser­vice is still col­lect­ing da­ta on fires in­volv­ing lithi­um-ion bat­ter­ies, of­fi­cers are tak­ing a proac­tive ap­proach to ed­u­cat­ing the pub­lic about the risks.

At Price Plaza in Ch­agua­nas, fire­fight­ers brought those lessons to life dur­ing Fire Pre­ven­tion Week 2026, un­der the theme “Charge in­to Fire Safe­ty: Charg­ing Is a Su­per­pow­er”.

Smart ex­plained that lithi­um-ion bat­ter­ies pow­er many de­vices used dai­ly, in­clud­ing cell­phones, lap­tops, pow­er banks and elec­tric ve­hi­cles.

When dam­aged or over­heat­ed, these bat­ter­ies can ex­pe­ri­ence a dan­ger­ous process known as ther­mal run­away, po­ten­tial­ly caus­ing in­tense fires and re­leas­ing tox­ic gas­es.

He urged peo­ple to charge their de­vices on hard sur­faces, away from clut­ter and flam­ma­ble ma­te­ri­als, and to watch for warn­ing signs such as un­usu­al heat, burn­ing smells or hiss­ing sounds.

What about elec­tric ve­hi­cles?

With elec­tric ve­hi­cles be­com­ing an­oth­er op­tion for mo­torists, HSM Mo­tors sales rep­re­sen­ta­tive Jah­bel Em­manuel used the event to ad­dress con­cerns about their safe­ty.

“When you buy an elec­tric car, know that you are buy­ing in­to an ecosys­tem of ad­vanced tech­nol­o­gy and re­search to keep you, the con­sumer, safe in the event of any­thing hap­pen­ing to you in that car,” Em­manuel said.

He ex­plained that some elec­tric ve­hi­cles fea­ture smart charg­ing sys­tems that al­low own­ers to sched­ule charg­ing and au­to­mat­i­cal­ly stop when the se­lect­ed lim­it is reached.

How­ev­er, he stressed the im­por­tance of prop­er home charg­ing in­stal­la­tions.

“First­ly, I would say if you are buy­ing an elec­tric ve­hi­cle, make sure and get a li­censed and a reg­is­tered elec­tri­cian to do the in­stall. That is para­mount.”

A day in a fire­fight­er's boots

Fire Pre­ven­tion Week wasn't all lec­tures and warn­ings.

Vis­i­tors were al­so in­vit­ed to ex­pe­ri­ence some of the phys­i­cal de­mands of fire­fight­ing through an ob­sta­cle course in­volv­ing pro­tec­tive gear, drag­ging equip­ment, haul­ing a hose at­tached to a tyre and lift­ing a 150-pound tyre to the fin­ish line.

In­ter­ac­tive ac­tiv­i­ties, in­clud­ing a vir­tu­al re­al­i­ty fire­fight­ing sim­u­la­tion, gave par­tic­i­pants a clos­er look at the chal­lenges fire­fight­ers face.

But amid the ex­cite­ment, Smart had an­oth­er re­minder for fam­i­lies: pre­pare for an emer­gency be­fore it hap­pens.

“Think about it, two o'clock in the morn­ing, who's go­ing to let you know that there's a fire tak­ing place?”

He en­cour­aged house­holds to in­stall smoke de­tec­tors, keep es­cape routes clear and en­sure every fam­i­ly mem­ber knows how to get out safe­ly.

For Smart, the mes­sage of Fire Pre­ven­tion Week is sim­ple: fire safe­ty doesn't be­gin when fire­fight­ers ar­rive; it be­gins with the de­ci­sions peo­ple make at home every day.

Fire Pre­ven­tion Week comes to an end on Oc­to­ber 10.