Four times a week on average, an e-bike or e-scooter battery catches fire in New York City.
Sometimes, it does so on the street, or when the owner is recharging the lithium ion battery. The highly flammable electrolyte inside the battery's cells leaks out of its casing and ignites, setting off a chain reaction.
"These bikes when they fail, they fail like a blowtorch," said Dan Flynn, the chief fire marshal at the New York Fire Department.
And these fires are getting more frequent.
As of Friday, the FDNY investigated 174 battery fires, putting 2022 on track to double the number of fires that occurred last year (104) and quadruple the number from 2020 (44). So far this year, six people have died in e-bike-related fires and 93 people were injured, up from four deaths and 79 injuries last year.
E-bike batteries are made up of numerous "cells," each a bit larger than a AA battery. If they are damaged and leak fluid, they can easily combust.
The FDNY says most batteries are so destroyed by fire when they inspect them that they can make no conclusions about which brand is safer than another.
The FDNY has begun posting videos on social media warning about the dangers of recharging lithium ion batteries.
This summer, the New York City Housing Authority proposed banning e-bikes and batteries from its 2,600 buildings.
To see the original article and photos at NPR.org, CLICK HERE.
https://www.npr.org/2022/10/30/1130239008/fires-from-exploding-e-bike-batteries-multiply-in-nyc-sometimes-fatally
Sometimes, it does so on the street, or when the owner is recharging the lithium ion battery. The highly flammable electrolyte inside the battery's cells leaks out of its casing and ignites, setting off a chain reaction.
"These bikes when they fail, they fail like a blowtorch," said Dan Flynn, the chief fire marshal at the New York Fire Department.
And these fires are getting more frequent.
As of Friday, the FDNY investigated 174 battery fires, putting 2022 on track to double the number of fires that occurred last year (104) and quadruple the number from 2020 (44). So far this year, six people have died in e-bike-related fires and 93 people were injured, up from four deaths and 79 injuries last year.
E-bike batteries are made up of numerous "cells," each a bit larger than a AA battery. If they are damaged and leak fluid, they can easily combust.
The FDNY says most batteries are so destroyed by fire when they inspect them that they can make no conclusions about which brand is safer than another.
The FDNY has begun posting videos on social media warning about the dangers of recharging lithium ion batteries.
This summer, the New York City Housing Authority proposed banning e-bikes and batteries from its 2,600 buildings.
To see the original article and photos at NPR.org, CLICK HERE.
https://www.npr.org/2022/10/30/1130239008/fires-from-exploding-e-bike-batteries-multiply-in-nyc-sometimes-fatally
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