NEW YORK (1010 WINS) – Bronx Congressman Ritchie Torres announced legislation Tuesday to mandate federal safety standards for lithium-ion batteries, which have been blamed for hundreds of fires in the city in recent years.
“Lithium-ion batteries have increasingly become a common cause of fires, and nowhere more so than in New York City, which has been hardest hit,” Torres said at a news conference where he joined FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanaugh and other officials to call for action. “We know that these batteries can easily overheat and upon overheating, burst into flames, causing not only a fire but an explosion.”
On Sunday, an e-bike battery sparked a five-alarm supermarket fire in the Bronx. Five firefighters, an EMS worker and a civilian suffered non-life-threatening injuries. FDNY video shows the moment the battery exploded.
Kavanaugh and Mayor Eric Adams have been among the local officials who’ve called for action at the federal level. And state lawmakers are separately pushing legislation to better regulate the batteries.
The legislation by Torres, a Democrat who represents parts of the Bronx, would require the Consumer Product Safety Commission to set mandatory safety standards for the manufacturing of lithium-ion batteries.
“These fires are devastating. These are the easiest fires to start and spread rapidly and the hardest fires to extinguish,” Torres told WINS on Tuesday.
Just last week, the City Council voted to ban the sale of unregulated lithium-ion batteries, which they said were blamed for more than 200 fires in the five boroughs in 2022 alone, leading to six deaths and nearly 150 injuries that year. FDNY officials have stated that this rate is only increasing so far in 2023.
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