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Q&A
FDNY's efforts to combat e-bike fires and lithium-ion battery issues
1:17:46
ยท
174 sec
Commissioner Robert Tucker discusses FDNY's efforts to combat e-bike fires and lithium-ion battery issues, highlighting recent legislation and enforcement measures.
- 67% decrease in fire deaths related to e-bikes reported
- FDNY has a lithium-ion battery task force conducting inspections
- Emphasis on the need for federal legislation to regulate battery imports and establish uniform safety standards
- Collaboration with UL to promote certified batteries and educate the public on safe storage and charging practices
Oswald Feliz
1:17:46
That's a lot of fires.
1:17:51
Last year and the year before, we passed legislation to strengthen FDNY's enforcement powers on the issue of e bikes.
1:18:00
So could you talk to us about what systems we have in place?
1:18:03
Also, what triggers that system including, for example, someone calling 301 to report unlawful sale of uncertified e bikes.
1:18:11
Talk to us about that system a little bit.
Robert Tucker
1:18:12
Yeah.
1:18:13
Well, first of all, I wanna thank you for all the work that the council has done in helping us fight, e bike fires.
1:18:21
We have reported a sixty seven percent decrease in fire deaths.
1:18:28
We had a very successful campaign around educating the public on ways to store and charge e mobility devices hopefully outside of their homes.
1:18:45
We have worked very closely with UL to try to get more certified batteries into the system and where we're seeing big problems is with uncertified batteries that tend to be less expensive and therefore more attractive for purchasers.
1:19:06
We have a lithium ion battery task force that's out in the field doing all different kinds of enforcement including working with the Department of Buildings to vacate seven locations that we deemed to be so dangerous that the building had to be shut.
1:19:25
We are not ever going to stop talking about lithium ion battery fires, which we see a lot of, because they're extremely dangerous to our members and they're extremely dangerous to the public.
1:19:41
And what we really need in addition to the help that you and the state have given us is federal legislation to stop the import of these batteries at ports and to give one agency, federal agency, the authority to oversee the regulation around these batteries because the great work that the city council has done in helping us, which has yielded much better numbers, isn't as effective if you can just go across the river to New Jersey and buy something that's legal there and not legal here.
1:20:27
So the federal legislation will really help us and we were close, then we weren't, but I think we're back on track again to get that legislation passed in in Washington, DC.