Regulating lithium batteries. Many deaths this year.

0:00 Speaker 1 What is this day? Sunday, Memorial Day weekend. We have Laura Commissioner Laura Kavanaugh, and she is the Fire commissioners of New York and she has just won. She has been talking about lithium ion batteries, how it’s killing people, how it’s creating a lot of fires, and she went and complained and talk about the people of New York

0:25 and people of all America that are suffering. Well, Commissioner, you won. Tell us how you feel.

0:32 Speaker 2 Oh, it feels great. You know this was so important to us. We were told it might be nearly impossible to get the House to vote on it, and we know it’s going to save lives civilians and firefighters alike.

0:43 So it feels very good to know we got it pass the House and that later this year it will go into law and we will see these batteries stop coming into New York City.

0:54 Speaker 1 And tell me, does that affect the electric car batteries too? Are they Are they having similar problems?

1:02 Speaker 2 No, this would just be for these scooters, these e bikes, the electric vehicles are not having the same issues. They’re very well made, they are all certified. This bill is about banning uncertified batteries which we primarily see in the e bikes.

1:18 Speaker 1 Well, that we’ve got it accomplished and it’s going to save lives and it’s going to save problems in our cities. Tell us what else are you working on next to get fixed?

1:33 Speaker 2 Well, so there’s a few things going on, you know. Obviously, we’re about to complete the city budget process and Mayor Adams restored our cuts, so we’re very grateful for that. We’re going to be building, you know, towards the future.

1:45 So we have to purchase some new safety equipment for our members, some additional training that we’ll be doing this year, and then we’re going to be releasing public safety advertising campaign around the e bikes. So i’d implore any of your listeners might have one of these to check their bike, make sure as that UL certification, try to store it

2:06 outside if that’s possible, and certainly to pay attention to our safety messages that are going to be out there, because lots of people have these bikes already, they’ve already purchased them, and we want to make sure the one that you might have at home is.

2:17 Speaker 1 Safe understood, and do you have enough firefighters, you know, because there were some cuts at one time.

2:29 Speaker 2 Yeah, our cuts were restored, so we’re very grateful to the mayor. We are still under headcount, but that is just about the COVID based deway. So we have a class in right now with both firefighters a ne EMTs and we’re looking to hire up quickly and our next recruitment camp campaign speaking of hiring, opens on June twenty fourth,

2:49 So any New Yorkers who are interested in the job of firefighter to go to join FDNY dot com.

2:57 Speaker 1 This is Memorial Day weekend and tomorrow is Memorial Day. Are you performing any ceremonies or what is the fire Department doing?

3:09 Speaker 2 So we have a ceremony, it was earlier today at our training academy, and then you’ll see some things on our social media memorializing you know, all of the members we have. There’s obviously a lot of crossover between us and the service community and the armed forces, but we also were going to be putting out some messages to

3:29 just stay safe this Memorial Day weekend. So always want to encourage folks as they’re going to the beach to be stafe in the water, as they’re going out of this heat, to be safe in the heat. And to make sure you know they’re cooking safely on this Memorial Days.

3:43 We don’t see any additional fires or any additional medical emergencies.

3:47 Speaker 1 Commissioner Laura Kavanaugh, Fire Department of New York, thank you so much for all the for all you do for the people in New York. And we’ll catch up with you again real soon.

3:58 Speaker 2 Thank you so much. Happy memory, real.

4:00 Speaker 1 Day, Happy morning, mortal Day. Thank you