Mackinac Island residents, historic businesses warned of e-bike battery fires

[MichMan]

Fire chief Jason St. Onge met with business owners on historic Mackinac Island in late April to warn them about the potential threat of electric bike battery fires, urging them to take action to reduce the threat to iconic buildings that simply can't be replaced.

"Almost all fire chiefs are concerned," St. Onge told the Detroit Free Press. "There's so little data on why these things are malfunctioning. I'm being as proactive as I possibly can, reading everything I can find. These battery fires are breaking out all across the country. They're catastrophic. These fires are killing people." The island had two e-bike battery fires last year, St. Onge said. An e-bike battery incident in July in the Harrisonville section of the island burned a home and put the homeowner and two firefighters in the hospital. The homeowner was charging the battery in the kitchen, St. Onge said.

Yet island bike rental shops continue to see a growing appetite for e-bikes, he said. Motorized vehicles have been banned on the island for more than a century. But not motorized bicycles. The island is governed by the Mackinac Island State Park Commission, a governor-appointed board.

"If Keurig coffee makers were doing this, no one would buy one. You'd say, 'I'm not having that son of a (expletive) in my house," St. Onge said. "I mean, I can't stop you from bringing stuff into your home. But this is just mind-boggling to me."

[link:https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2023/05/02/mackinac-island-fire-e-bike-battery-fires/70170466007/|

[GenXer47]

1. 38000 die in car accidents

each year so...meh.
We need to ditch cars and this is part of the growing pains.

[MichMan]

3. Not on Mackinac Island....

Cars have never been permitted there, so zero deaths from car accidents....

[MichMan]

2. People have been riding pedal powered bicycles there for decades just fine

No need to allow any type of motorized vehicles (other than wheelchairs) IMO

[Wonder Why]

4. Obviously your ability to pedal has not deteriorated as you have aged. Some of us are not so

lucky but we are lucky enough to not have reached a stage where a wheelchair is required.

The real problem is cheaply manufactured junk batteries and ebikes. There are no enforced standards so we have $1500 bikes made well and cheapos that should not even be on the road much less left up against a flammable building.

Once enough buildings catch fire and people get burned, then we'll finally come up with a safety standard (given that the let-capitalism-run-free crowd is not running the state or country at that time).

[MichMan]

5. Did you read the link? Pedal assisted bicycles are permitted as well as scooters for disabled people

Only Class 1 pedal-assist bicycles are allowed in the state park, along with Amigo-style scooters for persons with disabilities as defined by specific federal law. Steve Brisson, director of Mackinac State Historic Parks, said pedal-assist brings the island into compliance with laws protecting people with disabilities as interpreted by the court decision Bertrand v. City of Mackinac Island.

If there truly are no current safety standards on e bilkes, they probably do need to be banned and recalled until such things are in place. If there are and no one is enforcing them, that is another problem.