A woman was left critically injured when a fire sparked by lithium-ion batteries blazed through two Brooklyn apartment buildings Tuesday morning, according to fire officials.
The FDNY said that crews responded to a fire on Goodwin Place in Bushwick around 1:30 am and discovered heavy flames on the first and second floors. They rescued two people from the inferno, one of whom was a woman in her apartment at the back of the second floor. She was transported to a local hospital by EMS where she was listed in critical condition.
The fire engulfed all three floors of the building and extended to the apartment building next door. Fire marshals confirmed that smoke detectors and fire alarms were working properly.
The FDNY said 50 e-bikes and scooters bearing lithium-ion batteries were discovered on the first floor, and later removed by firefighters. A resident was repairing the battery chargers, according to the fire marshal.
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"Having fifty inside the same location is tremendously dangerous, and not only that 50 batteries that were not functioning properly," said FDNY Chief Marshal Dan Flynn. "Don’t repair them. If the battery is not working properly, replace it, don’t try to fix it."
FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh surveyed the scene just a day after she sent a letter to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission on the dangers of lithium-ion battery chargers for e-bikes and scooters.
"When these burst into flames, there’s almost no way out of your room or your apartment," she said.
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The fire department has responded to two dozen battery fires already in 2023; Through January, there were 36 people hurt and one person killed in fires linked to lithium ion batteries. There were 219 such incidents in NYC in 2022, leading to six deaths and 147 injuries.
The fire commissioner is working with the NYC City Council on prohibiting the sale of refurbished batteries and requiring batteries be certified by a national testing lab. The FDNY is also pushing for a ban on the sale of so-called universal chargers, insisting that manufacturers guarantee that e-bikes and scooters only function when used with the appropriate batteries.
"We have an interagency task force which the mayor has put together and asked all the agencies to work together," Kavanaugh said. "This is a critical safety issue both for New Yorkers and for our members...do not charge them when you are sleeping, do not put them in the only means of exiting your apartment or your hallway."
FDNY Chief of Operations John Esposito called the firefighters' efforts "outstanding," saying the heavy flames they encountered made the fire particularly difficult to combat.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
