Good morning. It’s Monday. Today we’ll look at why fires involving e-bike batteries — which have prompted warnings from fire officials in the last couple of years — are causing fewer fatalities in New York City.
Lithium-ion batteries provide the power for everything from smartphones and laptops to lawn mowers, but for firefighters the batteries in e-bikes and scooters are particularly dangerous. When those batteries overheat or malfunction, they can spark explosive, fast-moving fires that test the Fire Department’s ability to respond before it is too late.
Warnings about e-batteries rose as e-bike traffic climbed a couple of years ago. Now, there are signs the picture is changing. E-battery fires in New York City are breaking out about as frequently as they did last year, but there were fewer injuries in the first nine months of this year compared with the same period last year. I asked Winnie Hu, a Metro reporter who covers infrastructure, demographics and socioeconomic trends that shape the urban landscape, to explain what is happening.
If there are roughly as many fires from e-bike batteries as there were last year, but fewer deaths and injuries, what has changed?
One big change this year is that fewer lithium-ion-battery fires have started indoors, in individual apartments or stores.
That’s important because battery fires are particularly dangerous indoors. The batteries can explode with little or no warning. The blast can be incredibly hot, and battery fires are not a slow burn. The flames spread fast, potentially trapping people inside, especially if the batteries were left near doors or windows that get blocked by the fire.
The city says there have been 104 lithium battery fires inside buildings this year, as of Sept. 30. That’s 39 fewer than during the same period last year.
Fire officials have repeatedly warned that lithium-ion batteries should be kept outdoors. The decline in building fires suggests that more New Yorkers may be hearing that message.
But don’t the batteries remain a fire hazard? What does the Fire Department say?
Lithium-ion batteries have ignited a total of 202 fires this year through Sept. 30 — so yes, the batteries are still a major fire hazard despite many efforts to prevent more fires. Fire Commissioner Robert Tucker told me that lithium-battery fires continue to be a threat, though he sees progress.
By now, I think most New Yorkers are aware of the dangers of lithium-ion batteries. Even if they haven’t seen the news stories, the Fire Department has run a $1 million public education campaign in 10 languages. The campaign targeted neighborhoods with a high rate of fires and has included ads on social media, as well as on buses and subways.
There has been a lot of confusion about how e-batteries can be used safely, hasn’t there?
Yes. Some e-bike riders continue to keep lithium-ion batteries at home, believing that the batteries are safe as long as they are not being charged. Yet, fire officials say that in recent years more fires have actually been ignited by lithium-ion batteries when they are not being charged. They say the safest practice is to store the batteries outdoors.
That is why a number of buildings have banned e-bikes and e-scooters from their premises, including the Manhattan apartment building where I live.
A year ago, New York became the first city in the United States to regulate e-bike and e-scooter safety. How has that worked out?
More than 275 violations have been issued to stores, and more than 25 violations to online retailers. Each violation carried a fine of up $2,000 for each type of device.
The violations were found during more than 650 inspections by the city’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection and the Fire Department. The inspections targeted bike stores and repair shops where batteries might be charged or stored in less-than-safe conditions.
But there are limits to what the city can do.
Thousands of uncertified e-bikes and batteries are already on the streets and in people’s homes and continue to be used every day. And city and state leaders say federal legislation is needed to curb the flow of uncertified batteries and e-mobility devices coming in from other places.
How has the city’s pilot program for battery-swapping cabinets worked out?
The city said it was a success and extended it.
It involved installing battery-swapping cabinets and e-bike charging racks at five locations in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Some 120 delivery workers were then recruited to use the five stations for free.
The have swapped their batteries more than 14,500 times, with many coming once or twice every day to take a fully charged battery out and put in one that needs some juice. The swaps are fast, so the workers can be in and out in minutes, stopping by before or after their shifts — or during, if necessary.
What about the charging racks?
The charging racks turned out to be less popular because workers had to wait while their e-bikes were charging — the average time was about an hour and a half. The racks were removed last month after just 1,300 charges.
No fires have been reported at any of the charging stations or with any of the batteries.
The city is looking to install more charging stations, including along sidewalks and at public housing complexes. The two companies that operate the battery-swapping cabinets, Swobbee and PopWheels, are also planning their own networks of charging sites. Some will be on parking lots.
Weather
Prepare for showers and the possibility of thunderstorms in the morning until the early afternoon, with temperatures in the low 70s. The evening will turn mostly clear, with temperatures in the low 50s.
ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING
In effect until Oct. 12 (Yom Kippur).
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METROPOLITAN diary
The back lots
Dear Diary:
I grew up in the 1960s in the Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn. Most mothers stayed at home and ran their households, and the fathers went off to work.
As children, we had to answer to the “big kids” as well as to our relatives, the nuns at school and other adults.
But there was a singular area in the heart of our block where we held absolute dominion.
The block was the typical rectangular shape. On two sides were single family homes. Another side was dominated by apartment buildings and a convent. The fourth side had small stores with apartments above.
In back of these properties was a sizable lot that had no regular access. It was unclaimed and wild. We called it the back lots.
This area was on its own to do as it pleased, as were we when there. It was overgrown with weeds reaching the size of trees, the closest thing to a jungle we could find. There were dirt paths, grasshoppers and ivy. It was nature running wild yet hopelessly hemmed in on every side.
To get there, we had to climb a brick wall behind my grandparents’ garden and sidle along a chain-link fence, skirting the borders of several properties before hopping in. Once we were on the ground, the foliage provided cover and muted the din of the neighborhood around us.
Because entry was not possible for very young children and because older kids tended toward more remote places to escape, it was a self-regulating oasis of sorts.
We were natives in this small land, free to experience the wild and, for once, answerable to no one.
Until dinner time.
— Vincent Barkley
Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Send submissions here and read more Metropolitan Diary here.
Glad we could get together here. See you tomorrow. — J.B.
P.S. Here’s today’s Mini Crossword and Spelling Bee. You can find all our puzzles here.
Makaelah Walters, Geordon Wollner and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at [email protected].
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The post New Yorkers Are Getting the Message on Storing E-Batteries appeared first on New York Times.
