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OT: Firefighters Are Warning People to Never Leave Bottled Water in Your Car

Papi_Chulo
Miami, FL (or the nearest big-booty club)
A battery technician with the Idaho Power Company was on lunch break when he noticed smoke coming from beneath the center console of his truck. The culprit, he was surprised to learn, was a bottle of water. "I looked over and noticed light was being refracted through a water bottle and starting to catch the seat on fire," said Dioni Amuchastegui in a video shared on the company's Facebook page on July 13.

The evidence shows how dangerous leaving a plastic bottle in one's car on a sunny day can be: two burn marks were left on the seat of Dioni's vehicle.

Firefighters are warning drivers about the hazard, too. In a test conducted by Oklahoma's Midwest City Fire Department, sunlight magnified by a water bottle reached 250 degrees, news channel KFOR reports. "The sunlight will come through, when it's filled with liquid, and act as a magnifying glass as you would with regular optics," said MCFD's David Richardson.

"It uses the liquid and the clear material to develop a focused beam and sure enough, it can actually cause a fire, a combustion," Richardson explained.

The risk of such a disaster occurring is low, but officials say taking your water bottle with you when exiting the car is the best way to prevent this type of car fire.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/health/healthtr…

9 comments

  • joc13
    7 years ago
    I keep my "water bottles" in the cooler.

    :-)
  • ThreeDollarBill
    7 years ago
    I'm calling bs on this.
  • jackslash
    7 years ago
    I would like Snopes to investigate this story.
  • goldmongerATL
    7 years ago
    One more fucking thing to worry about.
  • sharkhunter
    7 years ago
    I would say highly unlikely. I say that because I know of someone who leaves a bottle of water in their vehicle all the time. No problem ever.
  • sharkhunter
    7 years ago
    On the other hand, the large percentage of people not wearing seat belts are getting killed at a rate several times higher than everyone else who is wearing seat belts. My words to them, you're a stupid idiot if you get killed because you didn't buckle up. It takes like one second.
  • goldmongerATL
    7 years ago
    When I was a kid they had those NTSB PSA's with the people giving lame excuses why they did not buckle up and then freeze cutting to them in full body casts, etc. I thought they were pretty effective, at least on a little kid.
  • Longball300
    7 years ago
    I guess it's feasible. I did see this done once on one of those "survival" shows on the TV as well. Chances are infinitesimal I'll bet.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwQJ-3pZ…
  • Mainster
    7 years ago
    My mom started a fire in the backyard by trying to make sun tea. The glass gallon jar focused the sunlight onto some dry grass and kindled a fairly merry blaze. She was sufficiently on the ball to be able to knock it down with a garden hose.

    In Phoenix, everydamnbody drives around with water those bulk-packed clear plastic bottles in their car. I think the greater danger lies in letting the water get warm in that plastic bottle, then drinking the water after God-knows-what chemicals have leached into it.
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