How the FDNY Is Fighting the Lithium-Ion Battery Battle

Sure. Well, it’s definitely something that’s a hot topic, and it’s emerging and growing day by day as far as the frequency of the fires we’re experiencing. The way it got developed and is continuing to develop into such a large, you know, problem set is during COVID there was a really big demand for delivery of food, pharmacy items — you know, restaurant takeout. And you know, a whole industry was formed here in the city of delivery drivers, riding basically e-bikes, mopeds and scooters, all which are powered by lithium-ion batteries. So, that was in 2020.

And it became something that’s extremely convenient, as you can imagine, where we all use Uber or, you know, what they call Seamless, which is food delivery. And you just go on your phone, and 20 minutes later somebody’s knocking on your door with whatever you ordered.

So, this has created a whole industry of e-bikes, meaning that we never really had storefronts that were devoted to selling e-bikes, swapping batteries, charging batteries, all of these things that really never existed. All of the delivery drivers, which they call deliveristas here — it’s an organization that they put together. They actually have a union.

You know, these bikes cost a lot of money and, so, you can’t blame them for taking them into their homes, you know, at night. So, that’s what we have. We just have an explosion of the amount of the bikes and the batteries that are here in New York City. And we’re finding out, you know, the hard way how dangerous these things can be in particular situations, especially.

And we’re experiencing, you know, quite a few fires. I have some statistics. To give you an example, in 2019, our fire marshals investigated 30 fires citywide that were potentially caused by a micromobility device or e-bike of some sort. In the last year, 2022, there were 220 investigations, so it’s really exploded.

So far this year, we already have 48 fires that are related to these devices. As far as the very serious consequences, in 2019 and 2020, we had zero deaths associated with these fires. But in 2021, we had 4 deaths. In 2022, we had 6. And in 2023, so far, we have 3. So, it’s just becoming, you know, a really serious situation.

Yeah, so it’s a very toxic smoke. It’s based — it’s chemical based. The batteries are built with, you know, different chemical components, and it’s a new emerging situation that we are getting ahead of in the FDNY with our cleaning of our gear more often, making sure everybody complies with the SCBA policy and just preaching that this is a potential toxic, extremely toxic, even more so than other fires, that we have to be extremely more vigilant with the wearing of our equipment and making sure we’re not breathing the fumes from these fires.

So, you know, you can see there’s many instances of these fires where a normal fire in a residential setting would start. Usually, I mean, the biggest cause is some type of electrical malfunction. And something will start out small and slowly build up to take over the whole room.

But as that’s happening, you know, if we have smoke detectors, they went off and the occupants were warned. But with these lithium-ion battery fires, if you can look up and see some videos of how this happens, you’ll see like a white smoke coming from the device and within seconds it explodes.

Sometimes literally. Like an explosion that has knocked down walls and taken out windows, or it becomes, within seconds, a blowtorch fire. So, that’s the difference with intense heat. And this is just something that is completely untenable within a residential setting within seconds.

And that’s the difference between a regular fire and these fires.

Yes, because, you know, the bikes are used for many, many hours during the day, and sometimes the users need more than 1 battery, you know, to operate for the day. So, you know, where they buy these batteries is a concern. See, what we’re really trying to get the message across through fire safety education is to only use batteries that are certified by a testing laboratory, such as Underwriters Laboratory.

They have a little sticker on them and that, right there, you’re taking a big step towards safety. But you know, a lot of these batteries now are available online. They’re cheaper, and they’re not certified. And that is one of our biggest concerns. And people that use these devices, they — like I said, they have multiple batteries, and sometimes the battery will break in some form or fashion.

There are little repair shops that are forming around the city. Some people will, you know, take them apart, put them back together with new cells. And this is also a compromise of the structure of the battery and is also leading to more fires. The other big concern is because they’re swapping out different batteries from different manufacturers, sometimes they’re not using the same — or the designed — charger for that battery. Although it may work, it could be giving off a different voltage, and it’s also a very big concern with what’s causing fires.

So, here in the FDNY we’re going at this — attacking this on many different fronts. And one of them is education. So, we have a whole unit that is called the Fire Safety Education Unit, and they’re going around to communities, schools, many different types of establishments, community events and promoting fire safety for using these batteries properly, what type of batteries you should be using, if you take them into your house — which is not illegal — the proper way to charge it, to make sure that you don’t charge it while you’re sleeping, never store it near any of your exits. It’s very important ’cause of how fast the fire builds up and to just use the equipment that’s designed for the bike that you bought.

And these are all, you know, just fire safety information that we’re getting out widespread. We’re also, on the enforcement front, we have a task force which is made up of the FDNY Fire Protection Inspectors accompanied with our Bureau of Fire Investigation. And we’re going around identifying some of these stores that sell the bikes. They have the battery setups where they’re charging numerous batteries, sometimes way too many. And we’re just giving out violations, but we’re also, with those violations, educating. So, we’re going to give this violation, and what we do is we come back and we check on it, but in the meantime, this is what you’re doing wrong and this is what you need to do in order to stay in business.

Because like I said, it has become quite the industry here, and there are many people depending on this for their livelihood.

Exactly, yeah, it’s very dangerous. The most egregious place we came across was charging up to 200 batteries, had a hundred bikes stored inside, it was the first floor of a 6-story residential building, and they were also sleeping within that space, in the back. We had rooms set up with, you know, sleeping accommodations.

So, extremely dangerous. Completely unaware probably of just how dangerous this is. So, we do educate while we’re out doing this surveillance of these shops.

So, it’s very important that we’re also going at this at a legislative level, and our fire commissioner has been very vocal about how dangerous these devices are. And we’ve reached out to the Consumer Products Safety Commission, which is a federal entity, and they’re going to be forming regulations, one of which is preventing the sale, use or lease of any device that is not certified or that would be like purchasing — you won’t be able to purchase something because it will not be available potentially. And also going into the ports to get the imported shipments and just make sure that all that is meeting the safety standards. So, that’s something on the federal level, and then we have what’s here is the city council just passed 5 new bills that address some of the concerns, and it’s similar in that the sale, use or lease of any devices that are not certified by UL or another testing laboratory. So, we’re trying to educate through some type of enforcement and also improve the manufacturing end of it. So, those are the ways that we’re going at this. It’s going to take some time, but I think we’re not standing still. We’re always trying to think of ways to address this — understanding just how dangerous it is, as I have told you, with the amount of fires and, you know, the loss of life.

Right. So, when we have a fire that involves these batteries, you’re absolutely right. It turns into a hazardous materials incident. Because we can’t just take these batteries and throw them in the garbage. First of all, once they are extinguished, we have had cases where they have reignited up to 48 hours later. So, they have to be overpacked by our hazardous materials units, you know, safe containment and removed to hazardous material storage sites by the department of sanitation here in the state. So, it’s a whole process. Our hazardous materials units right now are out there quite a bit and confiscating these batteries that are safe now.

Yeah, it’s stored in what’s almost like a — almost like a sand mixture which will prevent it from reigniting, and that’s also inside of an enclosed box. So, yeah, they are taken to facilities outdoors, and I don’t know the end of life, but I know that once they’re stored in this manner, it becomes safe.

Right, but I think a good example of the industry improvements that can happen is that, you know, not too long ago we were seeing fires from laptops and cellphones, but that manufacturing process was improved and you don’t really hear about it all that much. So, that is the end goal here. Also, you know they’re looking into safe places throughout the city where you can charge your bike or where you can store your bike. So, that’s also part of the legislative end of this. And also, what we would call a hub for all of the deliveristas, the delivery drivers, where they can, during their day, go charge their bikes and exchange their battery in a safe manner. Instead of doing it where they’re doing their own repairs, they are using uncertified batteries. These are all things that can potentially lead to fires. So, it’s a lot of education and coupled with regulation and some other legislative things we can do, and we are doing just, you know, looking to turn this around, although I don’t think it will happen overnight.

Oh. My pleasure. I really love to help everybody out. We want other cities to get on top of this as well. I think we are experiencing the highest level of this type of fires, but I think that not everybody is tracking it as well, either. That’s the first step, to track and investigate these fires and document and just see exactly how much of it is going on in the city. And, you know, really it is something that you really need to get on top of because, like I told you, in 2019 we had 30 fire investigations and just last year we had 220. And we’re on pace now to surpass that as well.

Well, they’re all still there, too, so we’ve been pretty busy here. You hear about it just about every day. And the sad thing is people being killed and hurt.

We had a pretty amazing video of a 5-alarm fire that I responded to a couple of weekends ago in the Bronx, where, you know, we didn’t know how it started but the entire supermarket, probably 100 feet by 200 feet, was involved in fire. Sure enough, they were able to recover a recording of the stockroom. Later on, we saw an e-bike smoldering, smoking and then it burst into flames. Now you have complete destruction of this supermarket and there was a laundry mat next door. From 1 bike. So, that’s just something that really hits home as to how dangerous this can be if not treated responsibly.

OK, thanks.