A fire caused by lithium batteries for e-bikes killed four people in New York City on Tuesday, firefighters said, again sounding the alarm over crashes that are skyrocketing with the development of the delivery industry home.
The fire broke out overnight in a small electric bicycle and scooter maintenance shop 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 photo posted 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.
It is the 108th such fire since the start of the year in New York, with a total death toll of 66 and 13 dead, including Tuesday’s victims, firefighters said.
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, a sector omnipresent 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.