CTV News in Sci-Tech says lithium-ion battery fires are happening more often. They describe how 200 New York City firefighters responded to a recent five-alarm fire. They root-caused it down to another one of those scooter battery fires that keep cropping up. What is causing this, and what can citizens do to help avoid it?
How Serious Are These Scooter Battery Fires?
Scooter battery fires have certainly become more commonplace in New York City recently. Fire officials told CTV News there were “more than 200 e-scooter and e-bike fires, which resulted in six fatalities” in 2022.
“In all of these fires, these lithium-ion fires, it’s not a slow burn; there’s not a small amount of fire. It literally explodes,” New York Fire Department Commissioner Laura Kavanagh told reporters. “It’s a tremendous volume of fire as soon as it happens, and it’s very difficult to extinguish. And so it’s particularly dangerous.”
What’s Behind These Snowballing Lithium Fire Incidents?
CTV explains there was a sharp uptick in e-bike and e-scooter sales during Covid. Their lithium-ion batteries are generally safe, they say. But that’s provided they are not defective, and users don’t damage or mistreat the batteries. A fire in a phone is one thing, but a scooter lithium-ion battery fire can be fifty-times larger.
Scooter battery fires may occur after a battery overheats, is punctured, or there is an electrical short circuit. Dylan Khoo, analyst at ABI Research continues, “In cases where fires occur spontaneously while charging, it is likely due to manufacturing defects.”
Steve Kerber, director of Underwriters Laboratory’s Fire Safety Research Institute explains the uptick this way:
- E-Scooter sales jumped dramatically during Covid, especially to New York City delivery companies.
- Prices went up in response, people felt they were being overcharged, and turned to cheaper alternatives.
- Some of those cheaper alternatives came from factories with inferior quality control systems.
Kerber told reporters, “It will continue to happen until there are regulations around the quality of these devices.” Batteries are not all the same. Consumers should be selective, and inspect their devices regularly.
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