Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow is joining Fire Chief Jim Jessop in calling for stricter regulations around lithium-ion batteries following a slew of fires involving the devices across the city.As of August 12, there have been 81 fires in Toronto related to lithium-ion batteries, Toronto Fire Chief Jim Jessop posted on X on Thursday. A video accompanying his post says the fires have led to one death and injured 15 other people. Another day, another Lithium Ion Battery fire in #Toronto. We are now up to 81. pic.twitter.com/b8U5oWD4oF— Jim Jessop (@ChiefJessopTFS) August 13, 2026 Jessop says there has been a 200 per cent increase in the number of fires in Toronto attributed to lithium-ion batteries since 2022. He calls them “the fastest growing fire safety risk” in the city and all levels of government need to look into regulatory changes to reduce the “probability ands the consequence of these fires.” He adds that in the majority of fire investigations involving such batteries, unregulated and uncertified batteries on micro-mobility devices like e-bikes are at fault.“That is primarily because there is no standard in Canada which these batteries have to meet,” he said.In an unrelated press conference on Thursday, Mayor Chow echoed Jessop’s call.“I am joining the chief together to say to the federal and the provincial government – we have to regulate these batteries, we have to control the import [so] that only batteries that are fit, that are in good form should be allowed into this country. Because people are dying, because of the enormous amount of damage [these batteries cause],” she said. “Change the fire code and building codes so that we are ready to deal with this huge problem… we absolutely have to regulate these batteries or else we’re going to see more death and destruction. Enough already.”She added that regulations will help protect consumers who may not be fully aware of the dangers of lithium-ion batteries and ensure that store owners cannot sell unregulated batteries.The most recent lithium-ion battery fire was a three-alarm blaze in North York on Wednesday, one of four in a 36 hour period in the city.Related:Toronto Fire responds to as many as 4 lithium-ion fires in the city in the past 36 hoursLithium‑ion batteries found burned after 2‑alarm fire at Toronto shelter hotelJessop said Toronto Fire has spoken to its counterparts in Vancouver, Calgary and Montreal to exchange ideas and share learnings about the issue and discuss what regulations around lithium-ion batteries should look like.“This is a big city problem right now especially with the proliferation of e-bikes and mobility devices,” he said, stressing that they are not calling for any sort of ban.“But at the same time the data is very clear – the number of fires keep increasing, the number of injuries keep increasing and we don’t want to be in a position where we have another multi-fatal fire or I don’t want to be in a position where I lose firefighters responding to these fires.”