NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) – A Queens scooter repair shop was caught during an inspection on Tuesday building illegal lithium-ion battery packs, Fire Commissioner Laura Kavanagh announced on Thursday.
Kavanagh said they uncovered an illegal lithium-ion battery manufacturing operation in which Wilson's Electric Scooters Sales and Repair shop in Forest Hills was allegedly building battery packs by the dozens and then taking hundreds of lithium-ion cells and using them unlawfully to repair batteries.
The illegal batteries, dubbed “Frankenstein” batteries, are uncertified and dangerous, according to Kavanagh.
The repair shop was illegally using hundreds of lithium-ion cells to create, alter and repair batteries.
According to the FDNY, during the removal of the lithium-ion batteries by firefighters, several of them began to fail and ignite and had to be extinguished.
When asked about the possibility of a citywide ban soon regarding the sale of these uncertified e-bike batteries, Kavanagh said, “The trickiest part of that is these are happening mostly in residences still. So we're talking about how do you enforce a ban inside a residence where you can't, you know, you can't get inside.”
Kavanagh added that they are now discussing what measures would truly yield results to halt the entire process.
Kavanagh had a message to other businesses trying to do this. “Unregulated, tampered with and non certified batteries are extremely dangerous and deadly,” she said. “They kill people, they have killed people and they will kill more people if businesses continue to operate in this manner. I hope this message to other businesses that are operating like this will be that we will find you and we will shut you down.”
City and statewide bans on the uncertified e-batteries are still being considered.
The business received violations from multiple agencies, including the FDNY, Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, Department of Buildings, and Department of Environmental Protection.
In the past year, incidents involving lithium-ion batteries resulted in 268 fires, injuring 150 New Yorkers and claiming the lives of 18 others.