'Explosive’ E-Bike Fires Have Killed 17 In New York In 2023

A spate of battery fires has rocked New York City this year after they were started by electric bikes charging in tightly-packed apartment buildings. So far, the fires have claimed 17 lives in 2023 after another blaze killed three people this weekend.

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The fire on Sunday started in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Crown Heights, reports Heatmap. The blaze killed three generations of the same family after it claimed the lives of Albertha West, here son Michael West and grandson Jamiyl West. Heatmap reports:

It’s a story that has become all too common in New York City. According to FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh, Sunday’s fire brings the total number of people killed by battery fires to 17. Two hundred and thirty eight total fires have been linked to the batteries, according to officials. When produced under accepted standards, lithium-ion batteries are safe, as The New YorkTimes notes. But cheaply-produced, unregulated batteries for e-bikes and scooters are proliferating, particularly among delivery workers.

“We owe it to the West family to do everything we can to make sure we do not lose one more New Yorker to these devices,” said Kavanagh. “We are on track to surpass 100 fire deaths this year. That is an extraordinary number not seen in decades.”

Electric bike fires are particularly tricky to extinguish. Photo: Theodore Parisienne/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service (Getty Images)

This weekend’s battery fire was the 238th blaze to be linked to electric bikes so far this year, reports ABC 7 News. It’s been attributed to cheaply made electric bike and scooter batteries, which are susceptible to “dangerous thermal runaway.” What’s more, when the batteries ignite, they do so with explosive force without smoldering, which would trigger smoke alarms and alert anyone inside to the impending blaze.

To try and stamp out fires such as this, state and city lawmakers have brought in measures to ensure that only safe, properly tested e-bike and scooter batteries make it onto shop floors and into people’s homes. In New York, it is now illegal to sell, lease or rent bikes that don’t meet the correct safety standards.

However, bikes that fall short of things like Underwriters Laboratories standard 2849 are still being used by people across the city. As ABC 7 News added:

“There is blood on the hands of this private industry- both the online retailers who continue to sell these illegal devices to this day— and the food delivery apps who continue to think that this problem will solve itself,” FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh said.

Many New Yorkers rely on their e-bikes for work. Photo: Leonardo Munoz/VIEWpress (Getty Images)

In order to try and get people off unsafe electric bikes and onto more tightly-regulated models, organizations have cropped up offering trade in schemes for anyone still riding an unsafe e-bike. In New York, riders can work with The Equitable Commute Project to swap their unregulated models for something safer with special pricing for delivery workers and other people who rely on their e-bikes.