By Roni Jacobson, Rocco Parascandola, Kerry Burke, Barry Paddock
New York Daily News
NEW YORK — A fire sparked by an e-bike’s lithium-ion battery trapped a Bronx family in their NYCHA apartment Wednesday, killing an 11-year-old boy and leaving the rest of his family hospitalized with critical injuries, FDNY officials said.
The blaze broke out in the kitchen of the 11th-floor apartment in the Patterson Houses on Morris Ave. near E. 140th St. in Mott Haven about 12:50 a.m.
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“This is a tremendous tragedy,” FDNY Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore said. “An e-bike was placed in the pathway of the exit door. It was placed in a spot in the kitchen that made it impossible for the residents to leave safely.”
The victims were pulled from an 11th-floor apartment and rushed by medics to local hospitals. The boy died at Jacobi Medical Center.
His name was not immediately released, but neighbors are mourning him.
“He’s really friendly,” a 12-year-old girl who lives in the building said of the boy who died. “He likes to joke around and stuff. He likes to run. He’s very energetic. He likes animals a lot. He was a really good friend to me. He really loved playing basketball. During summer, you would see him play basketball a lot.”
“I can’t believe it,” she added. “One day he was here and now his eyes is closed and it hurts because you know they’re never gonna open again. I’m not gonna see him again.”
School’s Chancellor Kamar Samuels held a moment of silence for the 11-year-old boy, who attended a Bronx public school, at an unrelated event Wednesday night.
The victim’s 15-year-old and 16-year-old brothers, 37-year-old father and the father’s 33-year-old girlfriend were all taken to local hospitals in critical condition, officials said.
“We hope for their recovery,” Bonsignore said. “It’s not going to be an easy recovery.”
The critically injured father, who had gotten the e-bike second-hand, was in a medically induced coma at Harlem Hospital Burn ICU, grief-stricken relatives said.
“He’s not conscious,” one family member told the Daily News. “He’s sedated.”
The rest of the family was being treated at Lincoln Hospital and Jacobi Hospital, relatives said.
The father reposted a heartfelt Facebook just hours before the fire. “Once you get to a certain point in life,” the message reads, “all you really is God, family, stability, good health, and peace.”
“I was petrified,” said Kristina Diaz , who lives in an apartment next door to the victims’ family.
“My whole apartment was filled up with smoke. My son grabbed the dish rag, wet it, put it on his face, and he tried to run out to go let the neighbors know … He couldn’t make it out. It was horrible. It was pitch black. I couldn’t even see out my peep hole no more.“
Now she is mourning for her neighbor who died.
“I’ve been awake since yesterday,” she said. “They were trapped in the apartment. They had the bike in front of the stove — it’s right by the front door — so they couldn’t get out.”
Diaz said the hospitalized father just got the e-bike.
“He got it from another neighbor in the building,” she said. “He didn’t have it long.”
The family’s pit bull Roscoe also died in the blaze, Diaz said.
The dead child’s aunt was stunned to learn that the fire was caused by an e-bike battery.
“They’re saying it was a lithium battery, but we don’t know,” she said at Harlem Hospital. “My brother would never do anything that would harm his children.”
Standing with the FDNY commissioner, Mayor Mamdani said the early-morning blaze was “an immensely challenging, fast-evolving situation.”
“Firefighters plunged into the fire and the smoke to rescue those who were trapped,” the Mayor said.
The FDNY arrived within four minutes and brought the blaze under control by 2 a.m., officials said.
Firefighters forced the door and were met by heavy fire. They rescued one victim at the door, who was immediately rushed to the hospital.
“Our firefighters then made an incredibly brave decision to crawl past that uncontrolled burning fire to conduct searches throughout the rest of the apartment,” said FDNY Chief of Department John Esposito. “Several of our firefighters put themselves at great personal risk to do that, to finish those searches and remove the rest of the victims from that apartment before we were able to put water on the fire.”
“The fire and the bike were in the path of egress, so the people in the apartment were not able to get out,” he added. “Our firefighters performed some incredibly brave actions, were able to extinguish that fire, remove everybody and give them the best chance to survive.”
The FDNY has repeatedly warned against the dangers of cheap sub-standard lithium-ion batteries.
“Today is a horrific reminder of the dangers lithium-ion battery fires can pose,” Mamdani said. “We know that lithium-ion battery fires can start quickly and spread incredibly rapidly.”
Lithium-ion battery fires have sparked 401 blazes citywide so far this year, with 74 injuries and six deaths, Bonsignore said. Last year saw 292 such fires with 51 injuries and one death, she said.
“We know lithium-ion batteries are everywhere and we know how valuable they are to people’s livelihoods,” Bonsignore said. “So we need to remind New Yorkers how to use them safely.”
She urged people to store and charge the batteries outside their home if possible, to never allow them to block doors or windows, never charge them unattended, and to buy certified batteries free of leaks or damage.
“The battery’s cells go into thermal runaway, which makes a small fire turn into a very big fire, very, very quickly,” Bonsignore said. “These lithium-ion battery fires can kill you, they can kill your family, they can kill your neighbors, and they can kill our first responders. It is all our responsibility to heed the warnings.”
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