Collapsed garage stress from EV's weight.

0:00 Speaker 1 What is today is Andrew msbro is the FDNY union head of the Uniform Firefighters Association of Greater in New York, and he’s the president. And there’s a lot of new problems around town with these new electric vehicles and electric bicycles.

0:18 Tell us, Andrew, what’s going on?

0:21 Speaker 2 Well, thank you for having me. Well, first of all, these vehicles, as we know, the electric bikes are causing a lot of fires. The number of fires coming from electric bicycles is doubling every year, and it’s already caused six fatalities in various fires this year alone. This is something that ten years ago didn’t exist and it’s just

0:42 really growing at an alarming rate, the number of fires.

0:46 Speaker 1 The electric cause they have the same batteries, don’t they.

0:51 Speaker 2 Well again, yeah, the litherarymion batteries. And what it happens is it makes the vehicle much heavier. I’ve read some studies say it could make a vehicle one third heavier than a similar sized vehicle that it was a gasplane engine.

1:06 And you know, when you’re looking at the garage collapse that happened this week, you know maybe it’s time to ask, you know, all the inspections that were previously done for these garages that they need to change their formulas on weightload. Uh, based on the fact that some of these cars are going to be heavier.

1:23 Speaker 1 Well, they say that there may be is like twenty what do you say, heavier that some of these garages the floors can’t take that kind of weight. And if you if you have too many.

1:36 Speaker 2 Electric cars, Yeah, we’re talking about tons of weight. You know, just one car along could have a well over one thousand additional pounds. You know, if it’s a truck, it could be two thousand pounds. So you know, the batteries and are enormous.

1:49 Speaker 1 Uh.

1:49 Speaker 2 There was, and it doesn’t even It’s also affects garages. It also affects that accidents. You know, if someone gets hit by one of these cars in the street, you’re getting hit by a much bigger a bigger weight, it’s much more force. Uh. The head of the NTSB UH made a statement a couple of years ago that she

2:05 was concerned with these vehicles and accidents because they are a much larger you know, amount of weight, and you’re better off, you know, getting hit by smaller vehicles than something that weighs as massive as these vehicles.

2:19 Speaker 1 I understood. Now if I had a garage, if I was a garage owner, what I would do is I would ban electric cars until we and we know we fixed the problem instead of having a problem with my whole building.

2:33 Speaker 2 Yeah, there’s there’s definitely should be some new inspections and new calculations done. You know, traditional garages, you know, probably designed and specified with a certain weight. And if you’ll also look at those lifts that you know they have in the open garages where they lift the vehicles up and stack them. You know, some of those the weightloads

2:54 may not be appropriate for the vehicles they’re putting them on them anymore.

2:58 Speaker 1 Yes, I could see that happening. The EMS commissioner said special care has to be taken at the disposal of electric cars too.

3:11 Speaker 2 Absolutely, Yeah, let’s not get traditional junkyard when they get rid of these cars. The batteries suppose a big problem, a huge environmental problem when they take them apart. So yeah, it’s it’s going to change all the industries, and you know they’re going to try to get ahead of it, but it’s you wonder how much of it is really

3:31 worth it. I mean, they’re pushing head along in this direction. But you know, can you use envision a time when New York City is all electric cars? How are you going to charge a car that’s parked on the street.

3:42 Speaker 1 Well, I mean, I think it’s becoming a more serious problem than that too. I’ve been talking to friends down in Florida and some of those cars are exploding when they get hit by seawater. And Jimmy Petron is I think Jimmy patonas CFO of Florida, but the fire department reports to him, and they’re having a real serious problem

4:08 in Florida. What else would you like to tell people about the other problems with the fd N Y and what else would you have to be concerned about.

4:19 Speaker 2 Well, well, as far as the you know, e by fires, you know, they obviously are releasing a much different kind of toxins that we have been used to us traditionally in building and structure fires. And I’ve asked the commissioner to you know, kind of basically confiscate gear after fires and send them out for mandatory cleanings, you know, because

4:48 we’re getting exposed to these heavy metals. We’re finding that, you know, we’re finding that there are firefighters that were hired after nine eleven that are coming down with cancer with you know, fifteen sixteen years on and this is really something that we should have gotten ahead of a long time time ago. But I’m happy to announce that

5:02 the apartment, the department is uh, you know, looking into you know what I exactly asked for that the gear be taken away after a fire and sent out for cleaning. But we’re also finding out that the traditional cleaning methods may not even be able to decontaminate the gear from the contaminants from heavy metal fires such as these lifting

5:22 in my own battery bikes. So you know, we’re there, we’re the Department’s going through the whole process and uh trying to make sure it’s being cleaned properly. But uh, unfortunately, uh firefighters are going to have to live with this gear while it while it’s uh, until these things are determined there, it’s possible they’re going to get back gear

5:40 that still has contaminants on it. With the current cleaning processes, we’re probably gonna have to upgrade and revamp our entire process.

5:49 Speaker 1 That sounds like another another problem in the making. Uh. Well, Sunday morning, uh, where we’re having a black cup of coffee here and and uh so many problems in the city. Talk to me as a New York Are you a New York City resident?

6:05 Speaker 2 Well, I was born and raised in Brooklyn. About ten years ago, I moved upstate to Rocken County.

6:10 Speaker 1 And tell us about the police department is having a mass exodus of their uniform police officers. Is the fire department having any similar problems?

6:24 Speaker 2 But we have had problems hiring in the last few years because of COVID, and we’re you know, short staffed by about you know, five to six hundred firefighters because of that. You know, probably a few hundred retired early because of the vaccine mandate. They didn’t want to be subjected to it. They just had the time to retire

6:43 and they left. So I would say the exodus is for us has already happened, and it’s hard for us to currently refill what we have. And the membership is being forced to work a lot of overtime because you know, every firehouse has their rig staffed. You know, we don’t just close them, nor would we want that to happen,

7:01 but it is causing a serious overtime spike, and the members are getting beat up.

7:06 Speaker 1 Well, Andrew Ansbrough, a president of the Fire Department of New York Union Uniform Firefighters, thank you so much for coming on and let’s talk again real soon.

7:19 Speaker 2 Absolutely, thank you for having me. I’m always thank you. Thank you.