(New York) A fire caused by lithium batteries for electric bicycles killed four people in New York City on Tuesday, firefighters said, again sounding the alarm over accidents that are skyrocketing with the development in the home delivery sector.
The fire broke out during the night in a small maintenance shop for electric bicycles and scooters on the ground floor of a building, at the foot of which an impressive pile of blackened two-wheelers was strewn on Tuesday, according to a published photo by the New York Fire Department on their official Twitter account.
During a press briefing on the spot, in the district of Chinatown in Manhattan, the fire chief of the city, Laura Kavanagh, communicated a balance sheet of four dead and two seriously injured.
“It is quite clear that this was caused by lithium-ion batteries and electric bicycles,” she added, adding that the store had already been singled out for violations of safety regulations.
This is number 108e fire of this type since the beginning of the year in New York, with a total balance of 66 wounded and 13 dead, including the victims of Tuesday, said the firefighters.
In April, a 19-year-old woman and her 7-year-old brother were killed in a similar fire in the borough of Queens. These fires have multiplied (44 in 2020, 104 in 2021, 220 in 2022) against the backdrop of the development of electric bicycles and scooters used by New Yorkers, as well as home or office meal deliverers, an omnipresent sector in the American megalopolis.
Fires can usually be caused by poor quality batteries, their age, or the crowded conditions in which they are charged. When they explode, “there is so much fire that it is often too late,” explained the fire chief.