August is the warmest month of the year in many parts of the country, so drink plenty of water to keep hydrated.
Although it may appear appealing, one of the worst places to store bottled water is in your car, as it might cause a fire. Don’t you believe me? Just keep reading.
That’s exactly what Dioni Amuchastegui, an Idaho Power battery technician, discovered during his lunch break in July 2017, when he saw smoke rising from under his truck’s center console.
“At first, I thought it was dust, but the window was rolled up, so there was no wind,” he said today. “Then I noticed that light was being refracted through a water bottle, and it was actually smoke.”
Though the fire only burned two little holes in the front seat of his pickup, he was able to move the bottle before it caused any harm.
Amuchastegui decided to carefully reproduce the combustion with his Idaho Power team, and on July 13, he uploaded the ensuing video to the company’s Facebook page.
“It’s not something you really expect, having a water bottle catch your chair on fire,” Amuchastegui said of the odd event. “I actually had to do a double take the first time.”
The Midwest City Fire Department in Oklahoma viewed the video and shared it on their Facebook page, citing it as a low-risk public safety advisory during the sunny summer months.
“The conditions must be just right,” David Richardson, a spokesperson for the Midwest City Fire Department, explained to TODAY. “The bottle has to have liquid, the liquid has to be clear, the bottle has to be clear, and sunlight has to pass through it at the right angle.”
Source: Freepik
The bottle’s rounded form is also important. On a sunny day, light streams through the front windshield and the filled water bottle, concentrating the light’s heat into a single spot. In seconds, that focused beam can reach temperatures of 400 degrees on a dimmer surface. That, according to Richardson, is hot enough to start a fire.
He emphasized that these requirements cannot be satisfied when a bottle is exposed to sunlight through a tinted window or while a vehicle is moving.
With just a little bottle of water and a dark sheet of paper, his team was also able to replicate the same combustion as Amuchastegui, although there is unlikely to be a sustained fire as his department has not recorded any vehicle fires caused by this method.
Take your bottled water with you instead of allowing it to bake in the car for hours—which is something you shouldn’t do anyhow! Take into account these reusable water bottles in addition to a few easy tips for maintaining proper hydration.
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