February 16, 2023: New York Metropolis fireplace commissioner Laura Kavanagh calls on US shopper security chiefs to do extra to maintain substandard lithium ion batteries overseas and to control chargers and e-bikes, after a whole lot of battery fires and 6 deaths within the nation. metropolis final yr.
Kavanagh mentioned in a February 10 letter to the US Client Product Security Fee that the town skilled 219 fires attributable to lithium ion powered e-bikes, e-scooters and different electrical micro mobility units in 2022 that led to 147 accidents and deaths.
Final month alone there have been “a variety of accidents” and a minimum of one loss of life resulting from fires attributable to e-bikes, Kavanagh mentioned.
Kavanagh praised the security fee for issuing remembers of e-bikes resulting from fireplace hazards and for selling the “trafficking” of non-certified merchandise, however he urged the physique to proceed – together with confiscation of the ports of units arriving within the nation which have did not the minimal. business requirements.
He additionally requested the fee to contemplate laws that make it tougher for folks to open batteries, which he mentioned may very well be a supply of security issues.
In the meantime, Kavanagh mentioned fireplace chiefs help draft legal guidelines made by the New York Metropolis Council to ban the sale of refurbished batteries and require batteries and electrical micro mobility units to be offered within the metropolis. licensed by a nationwide testing lab.
Kavanagh’s calls observe figures launched in November that confirmed firefighters have been known as to lithium battery fires almost 5 days every week for the reason that begin of 2022. The fires included one in a Manhattan house on the twentieth ground.
Picture: FDNY
