Vacuum battery blows up starting fire at Swansea resident's unit

Firefighters rushed to a unit at Swansea on Sunday afternoon. Picture: Swansea Fire and Rescue NSW

A VACUUM that blew up and set fire to another saw firefighters rush to a unit at Swansea this afternoon.

The vacuum, which had a Lithium-Ion battery, was on charge when it ignited and set fire to another one at 1pm.

The resident was cooking in the next room when the smoke alarm luckily went off, alerting them and their neighbours to the fire.

Both vacuums were quickly removed and the fire was able to be extinguished with water.

The unit escaped relatively unscathed apart from black marks on the walls where the fire broke out.

Black marks were left on the walls of the unit after the fire started.

Swansea Fire and Rescue NSW firefighters helped to ventilate the unit and put what was left of the vacuum battery in a bucket of water to keep it cool and stop it from reigniting.

Thanks to the working smoke alarm, there was only minor damage to the property and nobody was injured.

Multiple crews were called to the unit fire, including crews from Belmont, Tingira Heights and the Wallarah Rural Fire Brigade.