After Dismissing Streetsblog’s Reporting, FDNY Simplifies Rules for E-Bike Charging Stations … That Streetsblog Exposed

Pants on fire.

The FDNY abruptly changed its policy to allow businesses wishing to install e-bike battery charging cabinets to use a not-yet-federally approved testing standard after Streetsblog revealed that companies were unable to comply with the department’s new regulations, putting construction at a stand still amidst a battery fire crisis.

Since February, the FDNY required the companies to meet a new standard — UL 1487 — before installing the charging cabinets on streets and sidewalks. But Streetsblog revealed this week that there’s no place to undergo the testing because it has still not been added to a federal list of “Acceptable Test Standards,” prompting the FDNY to quietly announce on Tuesday that it would allow companies to get the UL certification from labs that do other Occupational Safety and Health Administration-approved tests.

The change came during a bizarre City Council hearing on Tuesday, where FDNY officials first disputed Streetsblog’s reporting on the testing standstill — then, in the middle of the hearing, issued the new guidance anyway.

At the oversight hearing, Council Member Lincoln Restler (D-Williamsburg) cited the Streetsblog report when he questioned FDNY Chief of Fire Prevention, Thomas Currao, about how small businesses could not get the new certification because it lacked federal approval.

Currao flat-out denied there was any problem, dismissing Streetsblog’s reporting as “erroneous.” He then pretended that the department’s new guidelines — which, again, were issued during the hearing itself — had been in place all along.

“We’re not in a total standstill,” Currao said, dismissing the Streetsblog report. “We’ve said as long as you go to a lab that has a national certified testing lab certification, and you can follow the 1487 standard, we will accept that. We could’ve been more difficult and said you need both. But we understand the needs of the city, and we understand the potential impact. So the information out there is erroneous.”

The whiplash regulations left at least one charging cabinet company confused.

“We want to be kosher, we want to work with FDNY. We’re not cowboys. But if they update the regulations every two weeks it’s hard,” said Baruch Herzfeld, one of the owners of Popwheels.

Herzfeld’s company, and other charging cabinet makers, are the key to the city’s strategy to reduce lithium-ion battery fires resulting from e-bike charging.

The city has been successful in curbing injuries and deaths from battery fires, but the number of fires caused by these devices has not meaningfully decreased. This year, as of Oct. 10, there have been 223 lithium ion battery fires recorded by FDNY resulting in 41 injuries and 1 death. Last year, there were a total of 279 fires, 99 injuries and 6 fatalities. 

Previously, the Fire Department accepted a “Letter of No Objection” as proof of cabinet safety. The letters could be obtained after testing in one of the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s nationally recognized labs. 

Other changes made Tuesday included adding an entirely new standard for compliance, UL 4900, not just UL 1487. That may force companies to have to get multiple certifications for each cabinet. The new regulations rolled out today are even more confusing, Herzfeld said.

“We understand FDNY is trying to make things as safe as possible. Ideally we can get direction from FDNY because the more direction we have the better. We are trying to figure this out the same time as they are,” he said. “All we want to do is get batteries out of apartments and off the train.”