A task force aimed at saving lives from lithium-ion battery caused fires is cracking down on stores that are in violation of overloading power stripes. Myles Miller reports.
Lithium ion batteries used to power electric bicycles and scooters have already sparked 25 fires that caused 36 injuries and two deaths in New York City this year, four times the number of fires linked to the batteries by this time last year, officials said Friday.
Fire Commissioner Laura Kavanagh said Mayor Eric Adams' administration is “coming at this problem from every single angle,” including working with the City Council and the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission on additional regulations for the batteries and educating the public on their proper use and storage.
“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.
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.
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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.”
In 2022, lithium ion batteries were the cause of 216 fires. Now the FDNY and the city sheriff's department are teaming up in an effort to save lives. The interagency task force descended on a store front on Thursday where delivery men in lower Manhattan pay to get their batteries charged.
The findings at the shop were staggering: Hundreds of batteries were found charging, set up near the front door and rolldown gate. Inspectors called it a recipe for disaster.
"They can erupt so fast that it doesn't have time to break the circuit breaker on the power strip, and it doesn't even have time to sometimes trigger the smoke detector," said FDNY Chief Fire Marshal Daniel Flynn.
The fire code only allows five lithium ion batteries to be charged at one time. Making matters worse, fire inspectors said the owners of the building illegally converted the storefront with mattresses and bunkbeds present — making it clear that a family was living there. There was also an illegal gambling parlor in the basement, with propane tanks and cooking equipment.
"This is in the middle of a residential area. Should Something happen in this particular location, quite a few families would be burnt out of their homes," said NYC Sheriff Anthony Miranda.
In an e-bike store across the street, the FDNY found 20 batteries stored improperly, along with the fire extinguishers obscured. The shop was issued a violation.
The fire department and sheriff's office visited five locations on Thursday, issuing six criminal summonses, 11 FDNY summonses and 14 violation orders.
"Some of the conditions you saw are incredibly dangerous," said Kavanaugh. "One big piece of this is making sure locations like that are not operating."
