I Witnessed Another Scooter Fire Explosion in Havana
By Osmel Ramirez Alvarez
HAVANA TIMES – I’m currently visiting Havana, the capital of every Cuban. A few unexpected things have taken place, such as the premature birth of a step-nephew, I also saw a house in flames with my own eyes after two scooters exploded, one of them hypothetically caused the fire.
It happened in the Reparto El Electrico, in the Arroyo Naranjo municipality of the capital, very close to where I’m staying at a relative’s home. The house caught fire after the scooter exploded inside and it was shocking to see the magnitude of the fire and how sudden and fast it burned. There wasn’t time for anything, it was like a bomb.
A couple was in the house with their young daughter, and they only had time to run for their lives out of the house. They weren’t physically harmed but they lost all of their belongings consumed by the fire, including the scooter. The firefighters took an hour to show up and approximately 20 minutes to put the fire out. But the damage was already huge.
Neighbors who had gathered around and were watching the whole scene said that the man in the house is a scooter mechanic and one of the two that had burned was his own, while the other was a customer’s. They guessed that the one he was repairing was the one that started the fire, and they speculated that “he was surely making an adjustment and something went wrong.” But the survivor was bewildered and lost for words, he just held his young daughter, in shock, while they watched all their belongings be engulfed by the flames.
It was a horrific scene and I’ve been panicking ever since because I have a scooter that I keep inside the house at night. Leaving it outside is unthinkable because it’s in danger of being stolen by thieves that even enter homes at night, so outside just imagine. Like a cake outside the school gates. But I have to find a solution because scooters are a blessing in Cuba because of transport problems, but they also put your life and belongings in danger. A great paradox.
In ont Canada we use lithium battery have 1 charging while 1 is in the scooter this will reduce the number fires but it is a problem all over the world
The electric batteries fitted to e-scooters have to be correctly manufactured and have to pass strict testing in the UK/EU before being certified.
I expect those sent to Cuba are inferior Chinese/Far Eastern products that are not fit for purpose.
Exploding electric scooters in Cuba is a problem. Why do so many explode? Speculation here is the only way I can comprehend the situation.
We all know Cuba is a very hot country with intensive heat from mid day to sun down. Temperatures in the summer months hover around 40 degrees C. Add to that the humanity and the time for a cool down takes a long, long time. Cubans who are lucky enough to have an electric scooter run them constantly for transportation or for other essential reasons. The scooter provides the owner with rapid mobility essential in a country where public transit is virtually nonexistent. Hence, scooter batteries become low with excessive use at the end of a busy day.
With a low charge at the end of a mileage marathon day the owner, pressed for tme, plugs the scooter’s battery into an electrical outlet so that the scooter is fully charged for the next day. Imagine how hot that battery is even before being plugged into an electrical socket. A heat seeking missile is probably an accurate description. The scooter’s battery is not given adequate time to cool down to an acceptable safe level for charging. Once plugged into an electrical socket more heat is piled onto an excessively overheated battery.
The result is excessive overheating causing the battery to explode creating a fire. Electrical scooters are ubiquitous across many countries. In a country like Canada they are primarily used for recreational purposes and thus do not receive the overuse as in Cuba. Moreover, the climate in Canada does not lend itself to overheating for transport vehicles. The scooter battery has sufficient time to cool down before it needs to be recharged.
It is unfortunate that the Cuban owners of scooters need them to run efficiently and continuously on a daily basis with no respite for the battery to cool down. The owners overworked and short on time need to recharge them immediately for the next days mileage marathon.
Hopefully manufacturers of scooters intended for very hot climates can manufacture a battery or perhaps another source of scooter power that is no easily combustible.