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"Each fire happened, they say it’s an e-bike, but we don’t know which one it is" Sounds fishy. How do we even know these were e-bike fires?

Kon-Peki 4y ago
The person you are quoting is asking the fire department to do extra work, not questioning the correctness of the fire department's conclusions. The answers he is looking for could just as easily be collected by his group, he just wants the taxpayers to do it for him.
- josefresco 4y ago
  > The person you are quoting is asking the fire department to do extra work, not questioning the correctness of the fire department's conclusions. Correct. I'm saying that the lack of record keeping/reporting has me questioning the validity of the reported number of fires. If you tell me your record keeping is poor/vague, I'm not going to blindly trust a statement like: "don't worry these records are accurate".
  - Kon-Peki 4y ago
    In my first response, I wasn't sure of your motives and gave you the benefit of the doubt. Now I am sure of your motives. "Dozens of photographs and pages of supporting evidence lead to the conclusion that the fire started in the battery of the e-bike" Is obviously fake because it doesn't list the brand of the battery or the bike. No matter that the labels were burned off in the fire and were probably fake in the first place. You want to know where they came from? Ask the owner where he bought it, and then ask that seller, and go up the chain. The owners are much more likely to cooperate with the advocacy group rather than the fire investigator, but never mind that. Give me a break. "You say the fire was started with gasoline, but unless you can tell me which gas station it came from I don't even believe there was a fire"
  - constantcrying 4y ago
    Firefighters fight fires. How recognizable do you think a burned up e-bike is? Do you think firefighters have nothing better to do than go through photos of fires with e-bikes involved? Their report keeping is "poor" because the job of a firefighter isn't to spent hours investigating which model of e-bike might have caused the fire.
gamblor956 4y ago
Are the pictures of the melted e-bikes not sufficient for you? Nobody quoted in the article doubts that e-bike batteries caused the fires referred to by the article. They simply don't know which brands made the batteries that caught fire. The rest of the quote: "What would be more useful, he said, would be if the fire department committed resources to testing and sharing details about which batteries were safe to use, so that workers could make more informed decisions."
bsder 4y ago
> Sounds fishy. How do we even know these were e-bike fires? Fire inspectors are remarkably good at pinpointing the cause of a fire. Many moons ago, I had a NiMH-powered portable vacuum go up and set my apartment on fire. I actually went with the fire inspector afterward (dumb of me as they were suspicious about the fire--never talk to the police), and he was very happy to talk about it. Walking around was enlightening: "Okay, let's see. Fire started ... somewhere around ... here. See that V-shape on the walls from the smoke? That's like an arrow pointing at the source. Aaaand, yep, there it is. (Pulls out pliers and yanks wire out of the wall) That's the culprit. (pulls stove out) AHA! There's the other battery they couldn't find. Hmmmm, those cabinets fell. Something heavy in those? (Yeah, cast iron fry pans). That would do it. You had some books right there and there. Oh, that's odd. Dense paper doesn't really burn that well. Those books are well burnt--accelerant here. Did you have oil in those cabinets? (Sure did). Okay. Well, looking at this the temperature was about X degrees--wow, we got lucky--this was pretty close to flashing over. ..." This went on for about an hour. One thing I really learned--don't try to commit fire insurance fraud unless you're on the level of a fire inspector. They WILL know even if they can't prove it.

Kon-Peki 4y ago

The person you are quoting is asking the fire department to do extra work, not questioning the correctness of the fire department's conclusions. The answers he is looking for could just as easily be collected by his group, he just wants the taxpayers to do it for him.

josefresco 4y ago
> The person you are quoting is asking the fire department to do extra work, not questioning the correctness of the fire department's conclusions. Correct. I'm saying that the lack of record keeping/reporting has me questioning the validity of the reported number of fires. If you tell me your record keeping is poor/vague, I'm not going to blindly trust a statement like: "don't worry these records are accurate".
- Kon-Peki 4y ago
  In my first response, I wasn't sure of your motives and gave you the benefit of the doubt. Now I am sure of your motives. "Dozens of photographs and pages of supporting evidence lead to the conclusion that the fire started in the battery of the e-bike" Is obviously fake because it doesn't list the brand of the battery or the bike. No matter that the labels were burned off in the fire and were probably fake in the first place. You want to know where they came from? Ask the owner where he bought it, and then ask that seller, and go up the chain. The owners are much more likely to cooperate with the advocacy group rather than the fire investigator, but never mind that. Give me a break. "You say the fire was started with gasoline, but unless you can tell me which gas station it came from I don't even believe there was a fire"
- constantcrying 4y ago
  Firefighters fight fires. How recognizable do you think a burned up e-bike is? Do you think firefighters have nothing better to do than go through photos of fires with e-bikes involved? Their report keeping is "poor" because the job of a firefighter isn't to spent hours investigating which model of e-bike might have caused the fire.

gamblor956 4y ago

Are the pictures of the melted e-bikes not sufficient for you? Nobody quoted in the article doubts that e-bike batteries caused the fires referred to by the article. They simply don't know which brands made the batteries that caught fire. The rest of the quote: "What would be more useful, he said, would be if the fire department committed resources to testing and sharing details about which batteries were safe to use, so that workers could make more informed decisions."

bsder 4y ago

> Sounds fishy. How do we even know these were e-bike fires? Fire inspectors are remarkably good at pinpointing the cause of a fire. Many moons ago, I had a NiMH-powered portable vacuum go up and set my apartment on fire. I actually went with the fire inspector afterward (dumb of me as they were suspicious about the fire--never talk to the police), and he was very happy to talk about it. Walking around was enlightening: "Okay, let's see. Fire started ... somewhere around ... here. See that V-shape on the walls from the smoke? That's like an arrow pointing at the source. Aaaand, yep, there it is. (Pulls out pliers and yanks wire out of the wall) That's the culprit. (pulls stove out) AHA! There's the other battery they couldn't find. Hmmmm, those cabinets fell. Something heavy in those? (Yeah, cast iron fry pans). That would do it. You had some books right there and there. Oh, that's odd. Dense paper doesn't really burn that well. Those books are well burnt--accelerant here. Did you have oil in those cabinets? (Sure did). Okay. Well, looking at this the temperature was about X degrees--wow, we got lucky--this was pretty close to flashing over. ..." This went on for about an hour. One thing I really learned--don't try to commit fire insurance fraud unless you're on the level of a fire inspector. They WILL know even if they can't prove it.