Skip, one of two companies permitted to rent e-scooters in San Francisco, has pulled its feet of vehicles in SF and in Washington DC after a vehicle burst into flames on a DC street last week.
According to the Washington Post, witnesses did not see how the fire started, but “fire and company officials said it appears to have started around the battery pack while the scooter was parked.”
Skip said via Twitter that the hazardous scooter “was discovered with its external battery on fire,” while also claiming that “we still have no reason to believe in a systemic fleet issue.”
Nobody was hurt due to the fire. A nearby building suffered minor charring due to the blaze.
DC transit officials demanded that Skip remove its scooters from the district until the company could determine the cause of the fire and whether or not other vehicles pose a danger.
SF City Hall has not forced a recall, but Skip announced Sunday that it will yank scooters from city streets as well, citing an “abundance of caution” when speaking with the San Francisco Examiner.
Skip fields over 600 scooters on SF streets. The recall grounds half of the scooters available citywide and leaves competitor Scoot, however briefly, as the only legal purveyors of the popular but contentious electronic scooters.
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