Fire Department of New York (FDNY) conference shows need to address major new fire risks of e-bikes and e-scooters. The two-day symposium brought together firefighters, stakeholders and researchers and was sponsored by FNDY, UL’s Fire Safety Research Institute and US NFPA. New York is now seeing an average of more than one micro-mobility device battery fire per day (e-bikes, e-scooters), often in homes as people bring the device or its battery to charge. The symposium heard firefighters’ recount ferocious fires started by batteries and were given live demonstrations of burning batteries shooting flames and debris. Joseph Loftus, an FDNY battalion chief: “We have guys with 20 years of experience … who respond to e-bike fires and tell us afterwards that it was something they’ve never seen before. They haven’t seen smoke like that before, haven’t felt heat like that, haven’t seen fire go up like that.”
“Emerging Issues. Full throttle. A. Verzoni, NFPA Journal Fall 2022 https://www.nfpa.org/News-and-Research/Publications-and-media/NFPA-Journal/2022/Fall-2022/Features/E-bikes
“You need to be ready. FDNY-hosted event underscores the urgency for continued guidance on e-bike fire hazards”. NFPA Journal Winter 2022 https://www.nfpa.org/journal
Listen to FDNY Chief of Fire Prevention Joe Jardin discuss the e-bike fire problem, NFPA Podcast https://nfpa.libsyn.com/e-bike-and-e-scooter-fire-safety
FNDY symposium https://www.fdnypro.org/symposium/
Photo from video on dangers of lithium-ion battery fires: FDNY website