Interesting. Thank you for posting. I remember there was one poster with a lot of connections to the boat who was very angry over suggestions batteries might have been the cause of the fire.
Conception
- Thread starter lexvil
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Bob DBF
Contributor
Nothing new in the autopsy, from the preliminary report, except actual figures which do not point to the cause of the fire.
Speculation starts where the author blames the fire on recharging batteries. Having batteries cooking off during a fire does not prove they started it.
Although it is also my pet theory, there is no way I, or anyone else knows, if battery charging was the cause. I don’t know if the NTSB will ever be able to definitively determine the cause. I hope they do.
uwxplorer
Contributor
And your comment would be what? Not a very useful opinion, to say the least, as a basic search will show that lithium (ion) batteries do contain Li ions, ergo lithium, the element, if not the in its metallic form (very flammable indeed on mere contact with water in an O2-rich environment): Safety Concerns with Li-ion Batteries – Battery University
Moreover, it is particularly tactless when you put this opinion-piece in context.
This is written by the sister of one of the victims, and I do not know who in her position would not desperately try to understand the circumstances of this tragedy.
It is all nice and good to not want to rush to conclusions not supported by incontrovertible evidence, but there is really no need to be a battery scientist to understand that if you put an average boat-load of UW photographers' batteries in a fire, whatever the fire's origin is, they will rapidly, if the fire is not immediately circumscribed and put out, render the situation out of control.
She was tactful enough to not blame anyone for the tragedy, and contrary to the quoted statement above, I think this is an admirably poised testimony which everyone should read.
The information on high CO and cyanide content in the blood, burns on one side only, all point to a person asphyxiated in her sleep and never aware of her impending doom. Quoting Heather: "May this bring comfort for everyone to know they passed away while resting in peace."
Does it REALLY matter that a battery may not have started the fire? Does it NOT matter that if you leave lots of batteries in an unsupervised environment to charge overnight, this can result in a devastating fire?
As a matter of fact, a single battery left to charge overnight did precisely that to a local dive shop not so long ago, and the damage (extensive) was not a total loss only because of sprinklers (and the fact that the shop was not made of flammable material).
Who still does leave their batteries charging overnight or simply unattended?
OK, wrong question, one just needs to watch the news to understand that we live in parallel universes where the facts of some are the conspiracy of others.
except that you're the one who's wrong
There absolutely is lithium in lithium-ion batteries. About a grams worth.
Advantages & Limitations of the Lithium-ion Battery - Battery University
And even if she were wrong, blowing off someone who's actually seen her own deceased sister's autopsy report is just rude.
Bob DBF
Contributor
It matters when one writes their speculation as fact, which was why I was answering a question by tursiops.
Also, I noticed you did not quote all of my post as it would not have fit with your rant.
Yes what ACTUALLY happened matters, because if we start creating regulations, laws, and procedures based on fear of what could theoretically happen vs what actually happens we will all end up regulated to death.
We all accept a certain risk in everything that we do. When I drive a car I accept a risk of injury or death, the question is what is the amount of risk that I, and society, is willing to accept. Just because something can happen does not mean that the probability of it happening is high enough to warrant regulation or controls. So what ACTUALLY happened does matter.
uwxplorer
Contributor
I don't read her text as her claiming that she's got all the facts. You, and others, seem to perceive it as that. We should probably leave at that, since it is matter of...opinion and would spin in meaningless "he said, she said".
Just to repeat my first comment so that it is clear: she wrote a very emotional and yet restrained opinion piece that brought up some facts (from the coroner and toxicology reports), which shed some light on the tragedy.
I can live with the "it is likely that batteries were a contributing factor" opinion (which most seem to agree with) written in a manner that opens it up to extreme and opposite interpretation.
My apologies if my partial quote was perceived as trying to deform your statement. It was not.
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