More deadly than man-made climate change

Six people have died in New York this year so far due to house fires started by e-bikes. I had no idea.

Fires from exploding e-bike batteries multiply in NYC — sometimes fatally

Matthew Schuerman, NPR

NEW YORK — Four times a week on average, an e-bike or e-scooter battery catches fire in New York City.

These bikes when they fail, they fail like a blowtorch,” said Dan Flynn, the chief fire marshal at the New York Fire Department. “We’ve seen incidents where people have described them as explosive — incidents where they actually have so much power, they’re actually blowing walls down in between rooms and apartments.”

As of Friday, the FDNY investigated 174 battery fires, putting 2022 on track to double the number of fires that occurred last year (104) and quadruple the number from 2020 (44). So far this year, six people have died in e-bike-related fires and 93 people were injured, up from four deaths and 79 injuries last year.

In early August, a 27-year-old Venezuelan immigrant, identified as Rafael Elias Lopez-Centeno, died after his lithium ion battery caught fire […]