Chicago and New York are different worlds, from hot dog condiments to hot dog excrement on the sidewalks. New York uses the wrong kind on the former and has too much of the latter.
But the laws of physics are identical in both cities. For boiling, the cooking water for hot dogs is heated to 212 degrees Fahrenheit. Hot dog excrement on any Broadway sidewalk grows colder following Newton’s law of cooling.
So the chemical processes that make lithium-ion batteries explode and incinerate homes in New York must work the same way in Chicago. Right?
New York saw 268 battery fires in 2023, killing 18 New Yorkers and injuring 150 more, most caused by exploding e-bike batteries. If you’re not familiar, search “New York battery fires” on YouTube. Grab some popcorn. You’ll be there a while. Try the 2021 fire in which two New Yorkers barely escaped by climbing out their fourth floor apartment window, then swinging to a nearby pipe and shimmying to the ground.
Nationally, the UL Research Institutes reported over 1,500 lithium-ion battery fires in 2023, with 111 fatalities and 621 injuries. A Consumer Product Safety Commission commissioner calls battery fire numbers a vast undercount.
Chicagoland has just one reported exploding e-bike home fire, in a Park Ridge home last year. The house suffered $150,000 in damage, Pioneer Press reported. Thankfully, nobody died.
But battery fires increase in direct proportion with the number of e-bikes and scooters. New York saw an increase in battery fires in five years after legalizing e-bikes and scooters. If you take a breath in Chicago today, you know the devices are multiplying here like podcasts.
And why not, when you can get a mini e-bike on Amazon for $279? Fun fact: You can’t buy that same e-bike from Amazon if you live in New York. That’s because New York passed the nation’s first law regulating lithium-ion batteries, prohibiting sales of any batteries that aren’t UL-certified — which includes Amazon.
E-bikes and e-scooters cause home fires because their batteries can be 150 times larger than the one in your phone. Picture an explosion powerful enough to knock down walls, flames burning over 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit and fire engulfing a home so quickly that the Fire Safety Research Institute (FSRI) estimates people have less than a minute to escape.
A FSRI test found it can take just 20 seconds for a lithium-ion battery to explode after it begins smoking.
Exploding lithium-ion batteries spew poisonous gases, including highly flammable hydrogen. Water and fire extinguishers won’t put out these fires, though FSRI lead research engineer Adam Barowy says water may cool down a battery fire enough to keep the flames from spreading.
It’s possible no more lithium-ion batteries will explode in Chicagoland. It’s just unlikely. As famed scientist Neil deGrasse Tyson put it, the “thing about science is that it’s true whether or not you believe in it.”
Ald. Debra Silverstein, 50th, had the vision to introduce legislation here targeting uncertified lithium-ion batteries, similar to New York’s ordinance. It passed the City Council last year. Is that enough to keep you safe? Nope. UL-certified batteries are better, but they also blow up from faulty charging, damage and overall aging. Batteries can explode while charging, “in use, in storage or idle,” according to FSRI’s Barowy.
Chicago’s law won’t make all the uncertified batteries disappear, and it can’t make e-bike owners follow basic safety tips — use manufacturer charging devices, check for damage, never leave a charging battery unattended and don’t charge overnight.
Incredibly, there are no mandatory federal safety standards for lithium-ion batteries. Legislation to set rules hasn’t made it through Congress, and if it does, rules may not follow. President Donald Trump fired three of the five Consumer Product Safety Commission commissioners, all Democrats, after they voted to formulate battery safety rules last May. All three insisted they were dumped for their battery votes. The two remaining Republican commissioners rescinded the vote.
If you live in a multi-unit building, consider the neighbors who don’t sort their recycling into the right bins. Do you trust them to buy e-bikes and scooters with costlier UL-tested batteries? Do you believe they’ll check for battery damage every day and never charge their batteries overnight?
Me either.
The New York Fire Department says the best practice is to store and charge batteries outside, using cabinets designed for the purpose. According to The New York Times, landlords and associations across that city have banned batteries from their buildings.
Chicago attorney Nicholas Bartzen of Bartzen Rosenlund Kasten, a firm specializing in home associations, says if you live in a neighborhood with a lot of e-bikes, or you know they’re on the premises, “Then you should get your arms around this.”
“I can tell you unequivocally that if a new building asked me to do rules now, I would put it in,” he said.
Bartzen’s clients use a variety of rules, from banning batteries inside to requiring storage and charging inside fireproof boxes in specific building areas, always with approval of the local fire department.
By the way, the New York Fire Department also cautions you should never go to sleep with your phone under your pillow, on your bed or with other flammable material.
Think about that tonight before you fall asleep scrolling through Instagram.
Cate Plys is a former Chicago reporter and columnist who now writes the Chicago history newsletter “Roseland, Chicago: 1972” on Substack. She is a regular panelist on WGN’s “Mincing Rascals” current events podcast, hosted by John Williams and airing Saturday nights at 8 p.m.
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