Four e-bike battery fires in two days injure 12 people across NYC, says FDNY
The citywide scourge of lithium-ion e-bike batteries injured a dozen people in four separate fires sparked in a single day, FDNY officials said Friday.
The blazes — three in Manhattan and one in Brooklyn — continued the troubling trend of malfunctioning lithium-ion batteries used to power electric bicycles setting off blazes in city residences. The phenomenon was responsible for four deaths last year, the department said.
The largest fire was in Brooklyn’s Kensington section just after 4 a.m. Thursday, when an e-bike battery sparked a three-alarm fire that gutted an E. 9th St. home near Cortelyou Road and the rear of a neighboring building, FDNY officials said. More than 100 firefighters needed two hours to bring the blaze under control, with seven people treated at the scene.
“I just woke up, my mom told me there was a fire,” said Joseph Barre, 16, after the Brooklyn building next door began burning. “I thought it was our house. It felt like I was standing in front of a furnace ... One family just came home. They came home to nothing.”
The smell of smoke hung in the air as neighbor Mohaiminul Islan, 28, said several e-bike owners lived there hours after he was awakened by the chaos.
“Flames, things burning,” he said. “It was pretty scary.”
The first fire took place on the third floor of a nine-story apartment building on W. 23rd St. near Seventh Ave. in Chelsea when an e-bike battery exploded into flames, leaving the bike a scorched ruin. A resident of the building suffered smoke inhalation during the 7 a.m. fire.
Nearly 10 hours later, firefighters responded to the corner of E. 125th St. and Park Ave. in East Harlem, where another e-bike caught fire. The blaze extended to a vehicle parked nearby, FDNY officials said, and no injuries were reported.
The fourth blaze happened at 6:30 a.m. Thursday when a lithium-ion battery attached to an e-bike exploded on the fifth floor of a sixth-story building on Fort Washington Ave. in Washington Heights. Four people suffered minor injuries and were taken to New York Presbyterian Hospital and Harlem Hospital for treatment, with the e-bike reduced to a melted ruin, cops said.
As of Thursday night, more than 40 fires in 2022 have been linked to malfunctioning lithium-ion batteries, FDNY officials said. The fires have led to 20 injuries and one fatality. In 2021, 104 fires were sparked by lithium-ion batteries, resulting in 79 injuries and four deaths.
On March 13, a malfunctioning battery sparked a fire inside a Queens apartment. A 43-year-old man hospitalized after being pulled out of the raging blaze died of his injuries nearly two weeks later.
FDNY fire marshals determined that blaze started in the kitchen on a makeshift work shelf. Several lithium-ion batteries used for scooters, E-bikes and other micro-mobility devices were found on the shelf, said an FDNY source with knowledge of the case.
Investigators were told that a tenant in the apartment built and repaired electronic skateboards powered by lithium-ion batteries. Three 50-gallon steel drums were also found inside the apartment containing lithium-ion batteries and battery components, sources said.
On Sept. 1, a charging moped battery killed 9-year-old Remi Fernandez of Queens as his desperate parents struggled in vain to rescue him from their burning basement home, officials said.
The blaze broke out at 2 a.m. as the lithium-ion battery charged in the Ozone Park apartment. A tenant in the building heard an explosion. Remi’s mom told a neighbor she heard her son cry out: “Mom, help me.”
Factory-installed scooter batteries seem safe and adhere to industry standards, safety experts say. The batteries that tend to combust are aftermarket items e-bike users buy online or in scooter stores as supplements or replacements for the battery that came with the device, said FDNY officials.
The Fire Department recommends that scooter owners never charge batteries unattended, and that batteries should be charged outdoors.
Nationwide, charging lithium-ion batteries for devices like scooters and E-bikes sparked 330 fires in the U.S. from 2015 to 2018, causing more than $9 million in property damage, says a Consumer Product Safety Commission study released in 2020.
