Buildings are banning e-bikes amid deadly battery fires (NYC)

Some building owners, mainly in New York City, are clamping down on electric bicycles after a recent spate of damaging and deadly battery fires.

Why it matters: E-bikes are surging in popularity, but the benefits they bring — lower emissions, easy transportation — are threatened by the growing toll of injuries and deaths from blazes sparked by their lithium-ion batteries.

E-bike advocates link the problems to batteries that are poorly made, refurbished or improperly charged. New York has seen "an exponential increase" in battery fires this year, Daniel Flynn, chief fire marshal at the New York City Fire Department (FDNY), said at a recent news conference.

Driving the news: A terrifying fire in an apartment building on Manhattan's East 52nd Street this month sent 43 people to the hospital and forced firefighters to rescue a woman dangling from a 20th-floor window. The cause: An e-bike residents left charging by their front door overnight.

In response, at least one large NYC landlord — Glenwood Management, which runs 26 luxury high-rises — told tenants to permanently remove any e-bikes. "Our leases are also being amended to state that residents and/or their guests are prohibited from having an e-bike in their apartment," Glenwood's notice to tenants said. "Additionally, we will not store or maintain them anywhere else on the premises."

E-bikes and e-scooters are already banned from FDNY buildings. Other cities have their own rules — in London, for instance, they're barred from buses, subways and the Palace of Westminster, where Parliament meets.

It would be useful to compare facts...

Whatever the extent of destruction of lithium batteries, comparing it to natural gas explosions is meaningless. Electrical fires, in general, cause far more property damage and deaths than natural gas fires:

According to the U.S. Fire Administration (USFA), there are 28,600 electrical fires per year. These fires cause $1.1 billion in property damage and loss and are responsible for 310 deaths and 1,100 injuries each year. The months with the most electrical fires are December and January due to increased use of heating appliances and lights.
https://electricalsafety.lbl.gov/2014/11/13/electrical-fires/

I guess you would also ban these.

-———From your link—————

1. Most electrical fires are caused by faulty electrical outlets and old, outdated appliances. Other fires are started by faults in appliance cords, receptacles and switches. Never use an appliance with a worn or frayed cord which can send heat onto combustible surfaces like floors, curtains, and rugs that can start a fire.
Running cords under rugs is another cause of electrical fires. Removing the grounding plug from a cord so it can be used in a two-prong electrical outlet can also cause a fire.

2. Light fixtures, lamps and light bulbs are another common reason for electrical fires. Installing a bulb with a wattage that is too high for the lamps and light fixtures is a leading cause of electrical fires. Always check the maximum recommended bulb wattage on any lighting fixture or lamp and never go over the recommended amount.
Another cause of fire is placing materials like cloth or paper over a lampshade. The material heats up and ignites, causing a fire. Faulty lamps and light fixtures also frequently result in fires.

3. Misuse of extension cords is another electrical fire cause. Appliances should be plugged directly into outlet and not plugged into an extension cord for any length of time. Only use extension cords as a temporary measure. If you do not have the appropriate type of outlets for your appliances, hire an electrician to install new ones.

4. Space heaters are a major cause of electrical fires. Because these types of heaters are portable, many times people put them too close to combustible surfaces such as curtains, beds, clothing, chairs, couches and rugs. If you do use space heaters, use the radiator-type that diffuse heat over the entire surface of the appliance. Your safest bet is to keep all flammable items at least 3 feet away from your space heaters.

5. Outdated wiring often causes electrical fires. If a home is over twenty years old, it may not have the wiring capacity to handle the increased amounts of electrical appliances in today’s average home, such as computers, wide screen televisions, DVD players, microwaves and air conditioners.
Breakers should be triggered when circuits get overloaded, but outdated breaker boxes often have worn connectors that do not work, causing the system to overload and start an electrical fire.

The funny thing is, I understand where TG is coming from, and while his M.O. is annoying and off-topic, his underlying point is valid.

Lithium Ion batteries are a very new technology relative to gasoline, propane, electrical sockets, matches, etc. and can be expected to continue evolving and improving rapidly in the near future.

So I wouldn't be surprised if the batteries eventually become considerably safer, overall, than other long-standing common causes of fires, and we'll develop better means of quenching them. But at present, batteries are getting a bad name because they're new, notorious, people carry them around or ride around with them, and the fires they cause are nearly impossible to put out.

Ultimately, though, the "news" about battery fires is all about the webpage clicks. Petroleum-based fires are ho-hum news, electrical outlet fires even more so. But battery fires draw eyeballs to pages, and it'll be a while before that slows down.

The reports went back to the insurer.

It was up to the insurer to determine what action to take.

The same inspector was never sent back to check on an issue.

I was sent to check on a wood burning appliance that was supposed to be disconnected from the stove pipe that was installed incorrectly.

The pipe had been removed when I checked.

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