NYC BUILDING FIRE CAUSED BY E-BIKE BATTERIES, DEVICES RESPONSIBLE FOR SEVERAL FIRES IN RECENT WEEKS
"These are incredibly dangerous devices, and we must make sure that members of the community are handling them properly and using them safely," Kavanagh said at a briefing on public safety.
Batteries used to power e-bikes have already been attributed to 22 fires, 36 injuries, and two deaths in New York City this year. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)
Many of the fires blamed on the batteries have been caused by malfunctioning devices left to charge overnight and placed in a hallway or near a door where they can trap people inside a burning apartment.
Three children and an adult were injured this month when a charging battery started a fire in their upper Manhattan apartment at 1:30 a.m., officials said.
Fire Department Chief of Operations John Esposito said after the Feb. 5 blaze that when the battery overheated and sparked a fire, "it blocked the egress out of the apartment, trapping the family."
Kavanagh said the e-bike batteries "present often an immediate inability to exit one’s room or one’s apartment or one’s home. So it’s really critical that we work with all our partners up here in government around enforcement, around education, around combating the hazards that these present to citizens and first responders."