Joanne Frost said her family home in London was destroyed in 15 minutes after her son’s e-bike battery burst into flames, leaving the house engulfed when she returned. The mum said she and her family were left traumatised and homeless by the blaze.

Frost said she had “lost everything in 15 minutes” and warned other people about the dangers of faulty batteries after the fire. Her son and a friend were rescued from an upstairs window by a passerby with a ladder as the flames took hold, a moment that underlined how fast the fire spread.

The fire is being used as a warning about e-bike battery safety, with Frost’s experience showing how quickly a battery fire can turn a home into a loss. For her family, the damage was immediate and total: a house destroyed, lives displaced and no clear way back to normal.

The question now is not what the blaze did — that was over in minutes — but whether more people will heed warnings about faulty batteries before another family ends up in the same position.