E-bike batteries blamed for 22 NYC fires, 2 deaths this yr

E-bike batteries blamed for 22 NYC fires, 2 deaths this year
A supply employee rides his electrical bicycle previous the New York Inventory Change, March 16, 2020, in New York.Lithium ion batteries used to energy electrical bicycles and scooters have already sparked 22 fires that brought about 36 accidents and two deaths in New York Town this yr, 4 occasions the collection of fires related to the batteries via this time remaining yr, town officers mentioned Friday, Feb. 24, 2023. Credit score: AP Photograph/John Minchillo, Record

Lithium ion batteries used to energy electrical bicycles and scooters have already sparked 22 fires that brought about 36 accidents and two deaths in New York Town this yr, 4 occasions the collection of fires related to the batteries via this time remaining yr, officers mentioned Friday.

Hearth Commissioner Laura Kavanagh mentioned Mayor Eric Adams’ management is “coming at this drawback from each unmarried attitude,” together with running with the Town Council and the federal Client Product Protection Fee on further laws for the batteries and instructing the general public on their correct use and garage.

“Those are extremely unhealthy gadgets, and we should be sure that contributors of the group are dealing with them correctly and the usage of them safely,” Kavanagh mentioned at a briefing on public protection.

Most of the fires blamed at the batteries had been brought about via malfunctioning gadgets left to fee in a single day and positioned in a hallway or close to a door the place they are able to entice other people inside of a burning condominium.

3 kids and an grownup have been injured this month when a charging battery began a hearth of their higher Long island condominium at 1:30 a.m., officers mentioned.

E-bike batteries blamed for 22 NYC fires, 2 deaths this year
A bicycle meals supply employee rides his e-bike via heavy snow, Feb. 1, 2021, within the Soho community of New York. Lithium ion batteries used to energy electrical bicycles and scooters have already sparked 22 fires that brought about 36 accidents and two deaths in New York Town this yr, 4 occasions the collection of fires related to the batteries via this time remaining yr, town officers mentioned Friday, Feb. 24, 2023. Credit score: AP Photograph/Robert Bumsted, Record

Hearth Division Leader of Operations John Esposito mentioned after the Feb. 5 blaze that after the battery overheated and sparked a hearth, “it blocked the egress out of the condominium, trapping the circle of relatives.”

Kavanagh mentioned the e-bike batteries “provide frequently an instantaneous lack of ability to go out one’s room or one’s condominium or one’s house. So it is in reality vital that we paintings with all our companions up right here in govt round enforcement, round schooling, round preventing the dangers that those provide to voters and primary responders.”

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