The habit of charging everyday household devices has become so common that no one really gives it a second thought. It may seem like something small, but it’s a habit worth paying closer attention to and is the driver behind Fire Prevention Week 2026.

Fire Prevention Week is coming up, and the NFPA builds the week’s theme around a specific fire risk. What’s different about 2026 is that the focus isn’t new. This is the second year in a row the message has centered on lithium-ion batteries. Last year’s theme focused on lithium-ion batteries in the home, and this year covers safe charging habits to avoid fires.

Lithium-ion batteries earned the spotlight again this year because of evidence from fire departments, news reports, and outside research like the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission confirms that it’s a topic worth talking about.

What the Numbers Show

CPSC’s most detailed look at lithium-ion fire risk is an April 2026 report on e-bikes, e-scooters, and self-balancing scooters. Phones, tablets, laptops, and power banks run on the same lithium-ion cells, and CPSC’s own guidance already treats them as part of the same risk, but there isn’t a dataset this detailed for them yet. Within that scope, the trend is hard to miss: deaths climbed from 5 in 2017 to 135 in 2024, and emergency visits climbed from 37,300 to 149,100. Fire is the dominant hazard behind these incidents showing up in close to nine of ten investigations.

A separate set of CPSC investigations, tied to its proposed battery safety rule, looked at 227 cases from 2019 to 2023. Most were fires with more than half tracing back to how the battery was being charged.

Lithium is a highly reactive alkali metal, easily giving up and taking back electrons, which is exactly what lets a lithium-ion cell store a large amount of energy in a small, light package. It’s also what makes it dangerous once something goes wrong and gives the raw element a Hazmat UN 1415 rating for transportation purposes. Each cell is sealed around a flammable liquid electrolyte, and if it’s overcharged or damaged, the reaction inside feeds itself, building heat and pressure faster than the cell can release it. That is called thermal runaway, and it can turn a warm battery into an active fire very quickly.

An incompatible charger is a prime example of when it comes to battery failure risks. A charger has to match a battery’s voltage and pushing too much causes overcharging. CPSC has noted 156 reports of fire and thermal incidents tied to universal or mismatched chargers on e-bikes and scooters between January 2023 and May 2024 that it now recommends only using only the charger a device shipped with. The same risk applies to a swapped phone or laptop charger, a battery left charging for hours after it’s already full, or a battery or cord that’s visibly damaged but used anyway.

If a battery starts overheating, swelling, smoking, or smelling wrong, stop using it, unplug it, move it away from anything flammable if it’s safe, then leave and call 911. If a fire has already started, get out and call 911. Water and standard extinguishers don’t reliably work on these fires and they can reignite even after they look extinguished.

Regulators Are Already Taking Action

Fire Prevention Week isn’t the only response to lithium-ion batteries and fire risks. Earlier in 2026, CPSC proposed a new federal safety standard for batteries used in e-bikes and similar products aimed at optimizing testing and labeling requirements.

New York City shows what education can accomplish. Lithium-ion battery fire deaths fell 67 percent from 2023 to 2024 because the city implemented a mix of enforcement and public education along with a shift in behavior where more people store and charge devices outside away from exits and living spaces.

What this Looks Like in Commercial Environments

While Fire Prevention Week is built primarily around household environments, the underlying risk still applies to the commercial space. Forklifts and pallet jacks, backup power systems, EV charging stations, e-bikes, medical equipment, vaping pens, emergency lighting, and the personal devices employees bring to work all run on the same chemistry.

While it’s smart to pay attention to how many batteries are charging, where and how batteries charge matters more. NFPA 855 governs energy storage systems in commercial and industrial settings, a separate standard from the household-focused message driving Fire Prevention Week. A facility charging batteries near high-traffic areas, with no designated charging area and no ventilation or smoke detection built in, carries the same risk just concentrated into a different footprint and with more at stake.

Marmic helps with inspections that account for battery-specific risk, staff trained to spot the warning signs of a failing cell, and compliance support for local requirements, backed by NICET-certified technicians working across these same industries. It’s the difference between hoping nothing goes wrong and catching it before it does.

It Still Comes Down to How You Charge

Fire Prevention Week 2026 is really just NFPA naming a risk it’s watched grow for years. CPSC has documented it in detail, federal regulators are now writing rules around it, and at least one city has already brought the numbers down, without anything more complicated than getting people to charge their devices somewhere safer.

That’s the same shift worth making anywhere batteries are charging, whether it’s one phone on a nightstand or a fleet of e-bikes in a warehouse.

For more information on Fire Prevention Week, visit NFPA’s Fire Prevention Week hub.

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