Why You Should Never Leave A Water Bottle In A Hot Car
A battery technician with a US power company was on his lunch break when he noticed smoke coming from 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," Dioni Amuchastegui said in a video shared on the company's Facebook page on July 13.
Safety Check: Water Bottle in a Hot Car
Did you know that on a hot day, a see through water bottle in your car has the potential to start a fire? Neither did Stations Battery Technician Dioni Amuchastegui.
Posted by Idaho Power on Thursday, July 13, 2017
The evidence shows how dangerous leaving a plastic bottle in your 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 a US 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 David Richardson from the fire department.
"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.
(h/t WSB-TV Atlanta)
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