NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) – An e-bike battery sparked a fire in the Bronx Sunday night that killed a man and injured at least nine other people, the FDNY said Monday, as the number of city fires linked to the batteries so far this year surpassed 250.
The fire broke out around 7 p.m. in a 10th-floor apartment of a 14-story high-rise at the Bronx River Houses in Soundview.
About 80 firefighters responded to the building at 1440 Bronx River Ave. The fire was brought under control around 8:30 p.m.
A 39-year-old resident of the apartment was found trapped and unresponsive. He was rushed in critical condition to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Nine other people were injured, including three who were hospitalized and six who were treated at the scene by EMS. They were all said to have non-life-threatening injuries.
An e-bike was found at the entrance of the apartment, according to fire officials. It was later deemed to be the cause of the fire.
So far this year in NYC, 18 people have been killed in 253 fires linked to e-bike batteries, officials said. By this time last year, there had been six deaths in 207 such fires.
Chief Fire Marshal Daniel Flynn said Monday that New Yorkers continue to ignore the dangers of e-bike batteries.
"We want them to not block exits. The fire we had last night was right at the entrance door," Flynn said. "There was no smoke detector that was functioning at the time."
"A high volume of fire is produced almost immediately," Flynn said of lithium-ion battery fires. It's not what we've seen in the past with regular fires, they usually start small and grow to larger fires. These fires tend to start fast and remain fast."
Just a few weeks ago, an e-bike battery fire killed three people and injured 14 at a Crown Heights brownstone.
City officials have blamed off-market batteries and chargers that don’t meet safety standards for many of the fires, and they have lobbied the federal government to strengthen regulations governing the sale of e-bikes and batteries.
After the Crown Heights fire, FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh said "there is blood on the hands" of businesses behind the proliferation of unsafe e-bike and e-scooter batteries.
“Retailers like Amazon and Walmart need to stop selling devices that are not safety certified by a national testing laboratory, and food service apps like Grubhub and Uber Eats need to do more to ensure the safety of their workers who depend on these bikes to make a living,” Kavanagh said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.