Can the magnetic field of a lift cause an e-bike battery to catch fire?! Take a look at the viral video, and find out what the facts really are!
Claim : Magnetic field in lift caused e-bike battery to catch fire!
People are sharing a video of a man who was burned to death when his e-bike battery caught fire, claiming that it was caused by the magnetic field generated when the lift doors closed!
On WhatsApp and LinkedIn : 🙏🙏🙏He took the e-bike battery into lift. When lift door closed electro-charge of the battery turn the hole lift into a magnetic field. 😪😪
Possible of the battery get damaged before. Becarefull not to carry large rechargeable batteries in lift.
On WhatsApp : 🙏🙏🙏Apek bawa e-bike battery masuk lift. Bila lift tutup electro-charge of the battery turn the whole lift into a magnetic battery. 😪😪
Translated : 🙏🙏🙏 Old man brought e-bike battery into the lift. When the lift doors closed the electro-charge of the battery turn the whole lift into a magnetic battery. 😪😪
Note : As the full video is gruesome and can be traumatising, I’m only posting shorter version of the video below, which is sufficient to convey what happened in the lift.
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Truth : Lift / magnetic field did not cause e-bike battery to catch fire!
This is yet another example of fake news being propagated online, and here are the reasons why…
Fact #1 : Video Was Recorded In China In 2021
Let me start by pointing out that this video isn’t new, as some have suggested. The incident was recorded in Guangzhou, China, on Friday, 8 October 2021 (source).
In addition, the victim was a 28 year-old man whose surname was Chen. He was not an old or middle-aged man, as some netizens are claiming.
Chen was seriously burnt in that fire, and tragically died 28 days later after succumbing to his injuries.
Fact #2 : Lifts Do Not Generate Magnetic Fields
Now, I should point out that lifts or elevators do not generate massive magnetic fields, as suggested by the wild claims circulating on the Internet.
In fact, most lifts are constructed of conductive metals like steel, and act like a Faraday cage that block electromagnetic fields. That’s why your mobile phone signal is impaired, or gets cut off, whenever you enter a lift.
Fact #3 : Lithium Ion Batteries Do Not Generate Magnetic Fields
Like your mobile phone, or your electric vehicle, e-bikes use lithium ion batteries, which have high energy density. But regardless of the technology used, batteries do not have magnetic fields by themselves.
Batteries can be used to generate an electromagnetic field. You may recall learning how to create your own electromagnet in school, using nothing more than a coil of insulated wire around an iron nail.
However, an e-bike battery being carried into a lift won’t do that, because it’s not connected to anything. So it is simply impossible for the ebike’s lithium ion battery to “react” with the lift to create some kind of magnetic field.
If lithium ion batteries can “react” with lifts to create an electromagnetic field that triggers a fire or explosion, it would have happened to millions of people who bring their phones, laptops, tablets and other battery-powered devices into lifts every day, across the world!
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Fact #4 : Lithium Ion Batteries Can Catch Fire
There is really no reason for people to invent stories about this tragic event. Lithium ion batteries can and do catch fire. While this is relatively rare, the risk is serious because lithium ion batteries are energy-dense and highly flammable.
That’s why airlines forbid passengers from checking in any device with lithium-ion batteries, and limit the capacity of power banks that you can bring onboard. In addition, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) forbids the lithium ion batteries from being transported as cargo on passenger aircraft.
Generally, lithium ion batteries are at risk of catching fire, if they were improperly manufactured, overcharged or charged using non-compliant equipment, exposed to extreme heat, physically abused, or short-circuited.
Fact #5 : It Appears To Be Battery Thermal Runaway
Some (unverified) reports claimed that Chen was charging the e-bike battery at home when it overheated, which was why he took it downstairs to cool down. That is plausible as he can be seen pressing the lowest button for the ground floor in the video.
In any case, prior reporting confirms that the video shows a thermal runaway of a lithium ion battery that tragically killed Chen, because it occurred in an enclosed space. It would have been quite a different outcome if the e-bike battery caught fire just a few seconds earlier.
If Chen was not in the elevator / lift at that time, he would have been able to escape death or serious injury by throwing the battery away from him, or simply running away from the burning battery.
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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.
He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.
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