A fire broke out at a Rad Power Bikes retail location in Huntington Beach, Calif., on Sunday, drawing more attention to the Seattle-based e-bike company’s recent setbacks.

The Huntington Beach Fire Department responded to a two-alarm structure fire at a plaza housing the store on Pacific Coast Highway. Video streamed on YouTube shows firefighters dealing with the incident, and at least two e-bikes can be seen lying on the ground outside the facility. A photo on Facebook showed smoke rising from the building, which also contains an Equinox gym.

“We’re working with local authorities to review a thermal incident that occurred at our Huntington Beach store Sunday evening,” a Rad spokesperson told GeekWire. “The incident was contained and happened while the store was closed. The cause of the fire has not been confirmed.”

Elektrek reported the news early Tuesday.

The fire comes in the midst of a rough period for the once high-flying Rad Power Bikes. The startup filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in December following surprising news in November that the company was fighting for survival as it faced “significant financial challenges.”

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) issued a warning to consumers less than two months ago to stop using some of the company’s bikes because of danger posed by their lithium-ion batteries. The CPSC warning mentioned 31 reports of fire, with 12 involving property damage.

“Some of these incidents occurred when the battery was not charging, the product was not in use, and the product was in storage,” the report stated.

In a statement at the time, Rad said it “firmly stands behind our batteries and our reputation as leaders in the e-bike industry, and strongly disagrees with the CPSC’s characterization of certain Rad batteries as defective or unsafe.”

Related:

• Rad Power Bikes rider’s DIY solution for potential battery fire sparks broader safety discussion
• Rad Power Bikes closing stores in Vancouver, B.C., and Florida; 7 more will remain open
• New CEO leading Rad Power Bikes in the midst of e-bike seller’s bankruptcy proceedings
• Rad Power Bikes’ biggest unpaid bill is $8.3M to U.S. Customs, as tariffs squeeze the industry
• The rise and fall of Rad Power Bikes: From breakout success to the brink of shutdown

Out of all 49 beautiful US states (plus New Jersey), the one you’d probably least want to camp outside in during the winter is arguably Alaska. If you were to spend a night camping out in the Alaskan winter, your first choice of shelter almost certainly wouldn’t be a USPS electric cargo trike, but over on YouTube [Matt Spears] shows that it’s not that hard to make a lovely little camper out of the mail bike. 

We’re not sure how much use these sorts of cargo trikes get in Alaska, but [Matt] seems to have acquired this one surplus after an entirely-predictable crash took one of the mirrors off. A delta configuration trike — single wheel in front — is tippy at the best of times, but the high center of gravity you’d get from a loading the rear with mail just makes it worse. That evidently did not deter the United States Postal Service, and it didn’t deter [Matt] either.

His conversion is rather minimal: to turn the cargo compartment into a camper, he only adds a few lights, a latch on the inside of the rear door, and a wood-burning stove for heat. Rather than have heavy insulation shrink the already-small cargo compartment, [Matt] opts to insulate himself with a pile of warm sleeping bags. Some zip-tie tire chains even let him get the bike moving (slowly) in a winter storm that he claims got his truck stuck.

While it might not be a practical winter vehicle, at least on un-plowed mountain roads, starting with an electric-assist cargo trike Uncle Sam already paid for represented a huge cost and time savings vs starting from scratch like this teardrop bike camper we featured a while back. While not as luxurious, it seems more practical for off-roading than another electric RV we’ve seen.