Charging the battery properly is a hassle. So the Madrid firefighters have had to come out and explain how to do it.

The Madrid Security and Emergency Agency has published a series of recommendations (something that comes remembering year after year) as a result of something they see constantly (: domestic accidents due to bad practices when charging a phone. What in 2026 seems obvious does not have to be so obvious, so it is worth collecting some of the points in which some users continue to fail.

It doesn’t work anywhere. Raise your hand if you have ever carried your cell phone on the bed or sofa. Such a common practice can end up leading to a fire. The basic recommendations are clear.

• Do not charge the device near any device that emits heat, such as the car dashboard itself (when it is connected by cable to it) or a radiator.
• Do not carry it on beds, chairs or textile surfaces. These, in addition to increasing the temperature of the device, are highly flammable.

The 112 recommendation is the same that we have been doing for years at Xataka: charge on a smooth, non-combustible surface, and if possible cool and ventilated.

Be careful with chargers. 112 explains that we should only use “approved chargers.” To verify that this is the case, all we have to do is look at whether or not the charger has a visible CE marking. This type of charger always includes data on its input voltage, output, amperage and power.

As Xatakero advice, we recommend buy chargers with official fast charging protocols such as Quick Charge (QC), Power Delivery or PPS. This is a perfect indication that the manufacturer has taken care to offer compatibility with the best charging protocols of the moment, since the final power does not tell us everything: how it charges matters.

Add to this that, although chargers are specifically designed to collect heat (all the heat they collect is heat they take away from your device), it is best not to put them near flammable surfaces.

Be careful with repairs. A point that we do not usually take into account and that can end in a bad outcome is the quality of the replacement battery. Nowadays it is more than common to use compatible batteries instead of the original ones, since they are much cheaper.

Here it is important to be clear about where the battery comes from and what its safety guarantees are. A poor quality battery can bloat, not control the temperature like an original one, and cause significant damage.

Go deeper. It is no coincidence that year after year, and with the arrival of heat, you discover these articles with tips (that you may or may not know) on how to charge your cell phone. Fires caused by plugged-in electronic devices remain on the order of the dayand every memory about the recommendations for charging our devices makes sense.

With the rise of silicon-carbonincreasingly larger batteries, and fast charging systems that exceed 100w, we have advanced and safe technology, but it requires a little effort on our part.

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