4 killed in electric bicycle battery explosion

The results are tragic. On Tuesday, at least four people died and two were injured after an electric bicycle battery exploded at a New York repair shop. According to ABC NewsFirefighters were called to a building in Manhattan after smoke billowed from it.

The fire broke out from a shop on the ground floor of this building. Officials said the explosion was a lithium-ion battery. Six occupants of the building were rescued from the fire, but only two of them survived.

The facts took place in an ordinary part of Manhattan near Chinatown. The Red Cross said it was providing emergency shelter to eight households, including 23 adults and two children.

An address already known to the fire brigade

The neighborhood also knew the address of the electric bicycle repair shop. He was cited for safety-related violations in 2021 and 2022, firefighters said. HQ E-Bike Repair was fined $1,600 in August 2022 for multiple fire code violations.

Eric Wu, whose elderly parents were killed in the fire, urged his 85-year-old father and 74-year-old mother to move because “it’s not safe. I’ve seen how they work,” he was quoted as saying about the company. New York Post “. “There were electric bikes everywhere. If it was a proper store, you wouldn’t be spreading your coins all over the place,” he lamented. “It shouldn’t be around residential areas.”

New York City Fire Commissioner Laura Kavanaugh highlighted the danger associated with e-bike fires, which she described as closer to an ‘explosion’ than a ‘smoking fire’. “The scale of the fire was incredibly dangerous,” he said. “We’ve said it over and over again — it’s almost impossible to get out in time. ABC News 108 says the fire was battery-related. Lithium-ion batteries have been identified since the beginning of the year in New York. A total of 13 people died.