A 34-year-old man died and two firefighters were injured after an e-bike battery caught fire in his Bronx apartment.
It was the city’s fifth fatality this year caused by lithium-ion batteries starting a fire, the FDNY said.
The fire at the third-floor apartment on Beaumont Ave. near Grote St. in Belmont broke out Thursday around 11:50 p.m.
Responding firefighters found the victim, believed to be a tenant of the apartment, unconscious and rushed him to St. Barnabas Hospital, where he later died.
Another tenant of the building suffered serious injuries and was also taken to St. Barnabas Hospital. Two responding firefighters suffered minor injuries and were treated at the hospital, an FDNY spokesperson said.
The fire was extinguished within 40 minutes. More than 60 city firefighters and emergency medical technicians were called to battle the flames.
Firefighters found an e-bike in the apartment where the fire broke out. FDNY officials determined that the bicycle’s lithium-ion battery caused the fire.
A HAZMAT team was dispatched to retrieve the lithium-ion battery and prevent it from igniting again, officials said.
Since 2022, lithium-ion batteries have become the leading cause of fire deaths in New York City, although the number of deaths has dropped dramatically this year, FDNY officials said. This time last year, twelve people in the city had died in e-bike fires.
Recently, 69-year-old Georgiy Kizyun died while trapped in his apartment in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, on October 16 from a fire caused by an exploding e-bike battery.
FDNY Chief Fire Marshal Dan Flynn said at the time that Kizyun was unable to escape after a lithium-ion battery stored in his apartment exploded.
“The device blocked the exit of the individual who succumbed to his injuries,” Flynn told reporters outside the Brooklyn building. “Do not place these devices between you and the front door. You must have a plan. Make sure you can get out.”
