Dear supporters,

I want to alert you all to an urgent development: recent fire reports and new video testimony suggest that fires involving lithium-ion batteries are climbing sharply, and these fires behave in ways that leave little time to escape.

Rapid escalation, limited time to escape:  Lithium-ion battery fires can progress extremely fast, generating intense heat, toxic gasses, and reigniting later. Conventional extinguishing methods (water, foam) may be ineffective or even exacerbate the problem.  Some fire departments now handle them as a new class of fire, with specialized mitigation techniques. 
In one tragic lithium-battery factory fire in South Korea in 2024, explosions and smoke meant victims had mere seconds to escape; those on upper floors couldn’t make it. 
Extreme temperatures can trigger thermal runaway: A firefighter in one of the videos emphasizes that high ambient heat and exposure to extreme temperature swings (common in Canadian climate) can initiate or accelerate battery fires.
Because smart meter endpoints are mounted outside, often on garages, exposed to sun, heat, freezing cycles, wind, and temperature extremes, they may be especially vulnerable to thermal stress triggering failures or fire events.

I believe these facts strengthen our position: the risk is not hypothetical or marginal, but growing, and it converges precisely where smart meters are installed. I encourage everyone to share this update, ask their local representatives about smart meter fire safety, and demand accountability for installations that expose our homes to such hazards.

A big thank you to Susan R. for sharing her research with me.

All the best,

Isabelle