Are Green Products A New Fire Hazard?

The Real Estate Espresso Podcast

Are Green Products A New Fire Hazard?

Spotify Google Podcast Apple Podcast Subscribe via RSS Leave a Review

Are Green Products A New Fire Hazard?

Welcome to The Real Estate Espresso Podcast, your morning shot of what’s new in the world of real estate investing. I’m your host Viktor Menasce.

On today’s show we’re talking about new dangers in apartment buildings that have not been fully handled in the design of buildings or in fact, even in the building code. Certain metals produce their own fuel once they’re ignited. You’ve probably done the science experiment of lighting a piece of magnesium wire or magnesium ribbon on fire. Once lit, you can put this piece of burning wire into a tub of water and it will keep burning. If you’re unsure about that, go on YouTube and you’ll see dozens of videos with this science experiment.

Well, it turns out magnesium is not the only metal that exhibits those characteristics. You can do the same trick with aluminum. Of course, you can do it with a lithium-ion battery as well. Once the fire starts, there’s very little that’s going to extinguish it. The conventional wisdom in firefighting is that if you have a fire, then the fastest way to put it out is to remove its source of oxygen. But what happens when the fire produces its own oxygen and the chemical reaction continues, no matter what you do? Have you ever wondered why fireworks don’t go out, even if it’s raining? Once a firework is lit, it’ll continue to burn until all of the fuel is expended.

News headlines are becoming more frequent about ships at sea transporting electric vehicles catching fire. There’s one right now near Alaska as we speak that was about 3,000 vehicles from China to Mexico. That fire is out of control and it’s unclear whether the fire started on the deck with electric vehicles or elsewhere in the ship. Now imagine if the fire is in the underground garage of your apartment building or perhaps in the bicycle storage room next to the lobby of your building? Those electric bicycles are now a new type of fire hazard that didn’t exist a few years ago. The electric vehicles are a new type of fire hazard that didn’t exist a few years ago.

When you talk about fire mitigation in a building that usually consists of several layers of protection. These are the actual assemblies in the structure of the building that have a burn rating. So for example, if you have a wall with a two hour burn rating it’s going to take a fire burning for two hours to penetrate that wall. That is designed to give enough time for people to get out of the building and for emergency responders to respond to the fire.

The fire suppression in a building is designed to douse the fire, usually with water, and hopefully put out the fire. Now, there are different types of systems. Sprinklers are the most common. But some industrial and data center applications use a halon system and that fire suppression is chemical in nature. Those systems will put out the fire but it will kill any humans also caught in their path. And then third, of course water doesn’t put out every single type of fire, we know that. In that instance, water-based sprinkler systems help slow down the fire by providing local cooling.

The placement of chargers, and the use of approved chargers, is a major factor in reducing the risk of fire. Charging does generate heat, and overcharging forces a battery to store more energy than it’s actually designed to hold. That can lead to excessive heat generation, it can damage the internal electrolyte, that’s the insulator that separates the terminals of the battery, the anode and the cathode, and it can produce plating on the lithium. That can cause short circuits, it can lead to rapid and uncontrolled temperature increases known as thermal run away.

Most reputable lithium ion batteries and chargers do have a battery management system, or protection circuit designed to prevent overcharging and stop the charge when the battery reaches full capacity. But defective batteries, poor quality chargers or bypassing the safety features can lead to overcharging. Using a charger designed for a different battery can undermine those protection systems, it can lead to incorrect charging rates, excessive heat and damage to the cells. Even brand new batteries can have microscopic impurities and defects from the manufacturing process and that too, can lead to internal short circuits, especially under the stress of charging.

The fumes from a battery fire are highly toxic. That can make it difficult if not impossible to fight a fire if the fire is in a confined space. The heat generated from a fire in the garage can structurally damage a building, forcing the demolition of the building. Even if the fire doesn’t spread to the apartments. That’s actually the biggest risk.

The chargers for electric bicycles are less sophisticated than those for automobiles are. Those products are much more cost sensitive and don’t have the same protection circuits that you would find in an automotive system. Now while some e-bikes, especially from reputable brands, pursue certain certifications, like Under Writer’s Lab’s 2849, this isn’t universally mandated for all e-bikes on the market, as a wide range of quality and safety standard, particularly with cheaper, uncertified imports.

This is why fire incidents related to e-bikes and scooters are a major and growing concern, often linked to aftermarket batteries, improper charging, or just lower quality products that lack the safety features around a well-engineered system. When I look at all the risks in a building, I happen to believe that the bicycle room itself represents an equal if not greater fire risk than the garage. In many cases, charging is being retrofitted into buildings that were never designed to have electric vehicles, and this is something you as a building owner need to be educated about and take real steps to mitigate.

As you think about that, have an awesome rest of your day, go make some great things happen, and I’ll talk to you again tomorrow.

Stay connected and discover more about my work in real estate and by visiting and following me on various platforms: