NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- An 11-year-old boy was killed and four of his family members were critically injured after they were trapped in an 11th-floor apartment fire sparked by a lithium-ion battery in the Bronx on Wednesday morning, officials said.
"At this point they've already determined the cause of this fire to be a lithium-ion battery from an e-bike," Mayor Zohran Mamdani said of the FDNY. "Today is a horrific reminder of the danger that lithium-ion battery fires can pose."
The mayor urged people to charge any micromobility devices like e-bikes outdoors and not inside.
The e-bike that officials said sparked the fire.FDNY
FDNY Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore said that "an e-bike was placed in the pathway of the exit door" in Wednesday's fire.
The commissioner said there have been 401 fires caused by the batteries so far this year citywide. She said the fires resulted in 74 injuries and six deaths, compared to 292 fires that caused 51 injuries and one death in all of 2025.
Wednesday's fire broke out just before 1 a.m. in the kitchen area of the apartment in a 13-story building at the NYCHA Patterson Houses on Morris Avenue in Mott Haven.
A memorial at the apartment building on Wednesday morning. Glenn Schuck
When the FDNY arrived, they found five family members who were trapped in the apartment, all terribly injured. They included a man and a woman, and three boys, ranging in age from 11 to 16. Two of the boys were taken in critical condition to Jacobi Hospital, where the 11-year-old was pronounced dead on arrival.
The 33-year-old woman and 37-year-old man were in critical condition at Lincoln Hospital, while the third boy was critical at Harlem Hospital.
The fire was contained to the one apartment, officials said. The fire marshal investigation is ongoing.
