Keeping That Water Bottle in Your Cup Holder Could Turn Dangerous

(Whitehouse, Texas) - A quick show of hands (I know I can't see you but play along)...How many of you remember the experiment in high school where you use a magnifying glass to line up a beam of sunlight onto a sheet of paper to burn it? Me too.

Turns out, a very innocuous item we keep in our vehicle's cup holder could do the same thing. This is not a summer issue, either. It doesn't have to be hot outside for the fire danger to exist.

Hidden Danger of a Water Bottle in Your Vehicle

Firefighter David Richardson of the Midwest City Fire Department in Oklahoma talked with KFOR and said,

The sunlight will come through, when it’s filled with liquid, and act as a magnifying glass as you would with regular optics. It uses the liquid and the clear material to develop a focused beam and sure enough, it can actually cause a fire, a combustion.

This demonstration was done by the Midwest City Fire Department to prove the above statement.

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What Else Could Become a Fire Danger in Your Vehicle

Something else to watch out for is hand sanitizer. While many of us have made it a habit to carry some around while running errands, leaving that small bottle in direct sunlight could also become a fire danger.

Not only could the sanitizing gel magnify the sunlight that could possibly start a fire, the alcohol used in certain hand sanitizers could release a vapor that could ignite if heated up.

It Can Be a Cool or Warm Day

It doesn't have to be hot for sunlight to be magnified by a water bottle or a bottle of hand sanitizer. If you're running errands and have that bottle of water or soda or hand sanitizer in the cup holder or on the seat, make sure its not in direct sunlight.

If they are, either cover them, place them in the glove box or put them somewhere where direct sunlight won't touch them. When you get home, take those items out of the vehicle to be thrown away or properly stored inside.

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