Why you really shouldn't leave a bottle of water in the car

Ya know how when you clean out your car every like 4 months, and you have about 20 million half full water bottles to get rid of?

Yeah well, you may want to stop being so lazy with your water bottles and take them out of the car once you're done with them.

Why? Well firefighters in the US are alerting drivers to the risks of leaving bottled water in their vehicles, warning that they could pose a potential fire hazard.

"The sunlight will come through, when it's filled with liquid, and act as a magnifying glass as you would with regular optics," David Richardson of the Midwest Fire Department told KFOR News. "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 said.

The likelihood of a fire occurring is low, but it wouldn't be worth the risk of having to Uber everywhere once your car goes up in flames. 

And a fire actually did happen for Stations Battery Technician Dioni Amuchastegui.

Amuchastegui posted a video to Facebook sharing that he was on a lunch break when he saw smoke coming from his truck.

"I looked over and noticed that light was being refracted through a water bottle and was starting to catch the seat on fire."

Two burn marks were left on the seat cover, but it could have been much worse. 

As the weather gets warmer here in NZ, this is our warning to you!