KISSIMMEE, Fla. – The Florida Division of State Fire Marshal is renewing a push on lithium-ion battery safety.
During a safety and health conference on Tuesday, officials released a public service announcement designed to arm the public with tools to combat emerging fire hazards surrounding the batteries.
“It’s really important that they make sure that they’re careful where they’re charging it and not to overcharge it,” Director JoAnne Rice said.
Last year, News 6 exposed the fact that there were no safety rules for storing and charging lithium-ion batteries.
The investigation helped spark a new law that gave the State Fire Marshal’s office the ability to write new rules to prevent fires caused by lithium-ion batteries.
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In September, a draft copy of the new rules was released ahead of a public hearing held by the state fire marshal.
“It’s going to take time for those things to get in place. One of the things we’ve been working on is an energy storage system rule. It allows us to adopt some of the current codes that are out there.”
Some of the rules being considered cover electric bikes and scooters. More are being proposed for electric vehicles and making sure parking garages are equipped with fire sprinklers.
Rice said the issue is of growing importance as more and more batteries hit the market.
“Things are happening so fast, we want to make sure with these emerging issues that we can get in front of it,” Rice said.
Fore more details about handling, storage and disposal of lithium-ion batteries, click here.
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