Two years ago, on a grey day in March, I was standing outside a block of flats in Shadwell, listening to a fellow delivery rider speak with passion as he addressed the crowd present at the vigil. His flat had gone up in flames, taking with it the life of his close friend, another rider, named Mizanur Rahman.
The fire had been started by an exploding lithium battery from within a modified e-bike. The pain and anger we all felt at the needless death of this father of two, was accompanied by frustration that the fire had gone largely unnoticed by the wider public. Rather than being amplified into widespread uproar, the screams that came from the flat that night seemed to have been met with muffled silence.
