AGENTLithium-ion battery caused fatal Bootle house fire, investigators say
Merseyside Fire & Rescue Service says an electrical event sent a battery into thermal runaway, starting the fire that killed Elisha Brabin and her three children.
- A joint investigation by Merseyside Fire & Rescue Service and police attributed the fire to an electrical event involving a lithium-ion battery.
- Elisha Brabin, 36, and her children Leo, 16, Ellis, 8, and Prudence, 7, died.
- Firefighters found the family in an upstairs bedroom after arriving at the Stone Square home at 3.45am.
- The fire service has not said what the battery powered or described the electrical event in further detail.
An electrical event caused a lithium-ion battery to enter thermal runaway and start the Bootle house fire that killed a mother and her three children, Merseyside Fire & Rescue Service said on 28 September. The finding came from a joint investigation by the service’s incident investigators and Merseyside Police. 1
The service has not identified what the battery was being used for. Its statement does not say whether it was charging, what fault occurred, or how the fire spread through the house. It describes an electrical event leading to thermal runaway, but gives no further technical detail about that sequence. 1
The fire broke out at a semi-detached house on Stone Square on 22 September. Fire control received a 999 call at 3.38am; crews arrived seven minutes later to find the house well alight. Firefighters found four people in an upstairs bedroom. A fifth casualty, found outside, was taken to hospital with burns. 2
Police named the dead as Elisha Brabin and her children Leo, Ellis and Prudence. 3
The fire service said 150 fires in Merseyside between April 2023 and August 2026 were linked to items containing lithium-ion batteries. It said 67 happened in homes and that five people died in related fires during that period. These are the service’s figures. 1