Deadly E-bike Lithium Battery Fires Frighten New Yorkers
Fires caused by lithium-ion batteries have increased in New York City over the past several years, with deadly consequences. These rechargeable batteries are found in electric bikes and scooters, cars, laptops, tablets, and phones. Lithium-ion battery fires have caused deaths, serious injuries and devastating damage to property around the city.
In New York City’s Chinatown, just after midnight on June 20, 2023, four residents died when a lithium-ion battery in a first-floor e-bike repair shop caught fire and the blaze spread to the apartments above. The tragedy was the latest in the 108 lithium-ion battery fires in New York City this year. The number of deaths caused by battery fires in the city is growing, too. Now alarmed, New York City officials are acting.
Battery fires have become a life-and-death issue for New Yorkers. From January 1 through the end of June, there were at least 13 deaths and 66 injuries in New York City linked to lithium-ion battery explosions, according to Fire Commissioner Laura Kavanagh.
In 2021, New York City had a record number of fires related to lithium-ion batteries – 106 fires left 79 people injured and four dead. This pattern continued into 2022, with 85 fires, 33 injuries, and two deaths in just the first six months.
Now New York City officials are doing what they can – passing legislation, expediting investigations into incidents, and planning education for e-bike users and repair shop workers who are at risk.
“Effective immediately, 311 calls regarding questionable activity at bike repair shops or any other location where batteries are being charged will get a response from the local fire station within 12 hours in an effort to save lives,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams said.
“WHILE E-BIKES ARE AN IMPORTANT PART OF OUR TRANSPORTATION NETWORK AND ESSENTIAL TO MANY SMALL BUSINESSES, OUR MESSAGE IS CLEAR: THERE WILL BE ZERO TOLERANCE FOR ANY ACTIVITY THAT PUTS NEW YORKERS AT RISK. WE HAVE BEEN SOUNDING THE ALARM FOR MONTHS ABOUT LITHIUM-ION BATTERIES AND THE DANGERS THESE ITEMS WHEN USED IMPROPERLY CAN POSE TO NEW YORKERS.”
– New York Mayor Eric Adams
In March, Mayor Adams signed into law new requirements that will ban the sale, lease or rental of electric micromobility devices that are not certified to a fire safety standard by the safety accreditation company Underwriters Laboratories.
Still, the law doesn’t take effect until September. Some political factions are trying to have the date moved up in an effort to save lives, but others are just getting to work.
The Adams administration is stepping up its education efforts, “to help anyone using an e-bike or charging batteries understand the safety rules and regulations as well as the risks involved with using these products,” the mayor said.
A joint comprehensive outreach and education campaign is planned to educate bike shop and bike repair shop owners about the dangers presented by lithium-ion batteries and the best practices to avoid fires.
Under the new partnership, Fire Department and Small Business Services teams will focus on educating the public in mulltiple languages on the safety risks associated with after-market batteries, and those that have been repaired.
“We are heartbroken by the loss of life in Chinatown and are eager to work with FDNY and other city partners to educate business owners on safety measures to protect both their lives and livelihoods,” said New York City Small Business Services Commissioner Kevin Kim. “Together, with the FDNY, SBS will provide safety information in 11 languages starting in Chinatown, and going citywide. Through robust education, we can prevent further tragedies and keep New Yorkers safe.”
The FDNY says it issued several summonses to that same shop over the past two years for the number of e-bike batteries that were inside and plugged in.
Now the Fire Department is encouraging New Yorkers who see questionable activity related to lithium-ion batteries at bike shops and bike repair shops to call 311 and lodge a complaint.
Questionable activity for charging lithium-ion batteries may include large numbers of batteries being charged close together, mazes of extension cords, sale of batteries that appear to be refurbished, or informal charging centers that do not appear to be properly licensed businesses.
Members of the FDNY will respond to the complaint within 12 hours and take necessary action to relieve any hazardous conditions on the premises. Actions may include issuing violations and, in some cases, vacate orders.
“We are devastated by the losses suffered at the fire at the e-bike store in Chinatown. Too many people have lost their lives because of lithium-ion batteries, and we are grateful to partner with the city’s Small Business Services to educate shop owners on the dangers presented by them,” said FDNY Commissioner Kavanagh. “We will continue to target this issue from all angles, and this partnership is the next logical step in getting the message out about safe practices for all micromobility retailers and users.”
But in arena of New York politics, nothing is simple.
Now, New York Assistant Fire Chief Joe Jardin claims Fire Commissioner Kavanagh ignored the battery-fire risks for years and ignored her staff’s calls for action against them.
Kavanaugh refused to publicly support banning lithium-ion battery-powered bikes and scooters from New York City Housing Authority public housing buildings out of fear of “political winds,” he and two other FDNY demoted assistant chiefs said in a new court filing in their ongoing suit against the Fire Commissioner.
Kavanagh declined to act last summer even though Jardin believed a ban would make housing complex residents safer, says the newly amended complaint in the chiefs’ lawsuit made public Tuesday.
When Jardin and Chief Frank Leeb put together a symposium to educate FDNY members and fire commissioners from across the country and Canada about the dangers of lithium-ion battery fires that September, Kavanagh would not invite City Council members to the event.
She skipped the symposium altogether because she did not want the FDNY “out in front of the issue,” the lawsuit claims.
An FDNY spokesperson said the allegations against Kavanagh are “meritless.”
City Council Majority Leader Seeks National Legislation
The upcoming city ban of unsafe batteries “was a solid first step, but does not address the several thousand unsafe batteries already out there and the true root issue: these unsafe batteries are far cheaper to obtain than a certified, safe one,” said New York City Council Member Keith Powers in an email to the online news outlet Smart Cities Dive this week.
Powers, a Democrat who represents some of the wealthiest parts of Manhattan, also serves as Majority Leader on the NYC City Council.
He has sponsored several bills on battery fires, including one now in committee that proposes allowing New Yorkers to swap unsafe batteries for safety-certified ones, helping to “reduce the demand for cheap, unsafe lithium-ion batteries,” Powers explained.
In August 2022, a fire sparked by a lithium-ion battery claimed the life of a woman and a five-year-old girl in their Harlem apartment. This tragic incident prompted Powers and two other New York City Council members to write to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission Chairman Alexander Hoehn-Saric asking him to strengthen the regulation of lithium-ion battery cells nationwide.
“In the past few years, the City Council members wrote, “New York City and other cities across the country have seen a marked increase in the use of e-bikes and e-scooters for food and grocery delivery, recreational use, and more as the pandemic increased demand for these services.”
“With the stark increase in usage, many individuals turn to purchasing cheaper, less safe lithium-ion batteries online, do not have access to safe charging locations, and have to charge these batteries in personal homes,” they wrote. “As a result, we have also seen an increase in deadly fires related to lithium-ion batteries.”
Ultimately, Powers said, federal regulation of lithium-ion batteries needs to be improved and standardized to prevent future injuries and deaths.
Hard-working Delivery Workers Need Safe E-bikes
Many of New York City’s roughly 65,000 delivery workers, mostly low-income men, rely on e-bikes and scooters for their jobs. But buying a high-quality, fire-safe vehicle may be tough for workers, who make as little as $7.09 an hour, according to the city, though the minimum wage for app-based delivery workers in the city increased to $17.96 an hour as of mid-July.
In late June, the Equitable Commute Project, a coalition of organizations working to connect low-income New Yorkers to e-bikes, launched an e-bike trade-in program targeted to delivery workers.
Under the trade-in program, delivery workers may be eligible for a $1,500 rebate toward a quality e-bike if they trade in an e-bike, scooter or moped that is not compliant with fire-safety standards. The UL-certified bike available via the trade-in program retails for nearly $4,000.
Delivery workers who can’t afford the $2,200 upfront cost of the subsidized bike can access a loan through Spring Bank, a South Bronx-based community development financial institution. The GoGreen Cycle Loan, which requires no minimum credit score, has “become a critical component of the initiative to trade out bikes with bad batteries,” Spring Bank’s director of consumer lending, Melanie Stern, said.
Getting delivery workers better bikes “became an issue of safety around the fires, but also an equity issue,” she said, because “even with the subsidy, a good bike is still expensive.”
Finally, the rash of battery fires has created job opportunities for workers with the right skills. The Equitable Commute Project provides workforce development and training to prepare individuals with high barriers to employment for careers in the rapidly growing micromobility industry, including training on safely handling lithium-ion batteries.
Mayor Adams says his administration is “committed to leading the nation in identifying proactive ways to both increase enforcement against those improperly using lithium-ion batteries while simultaneously educating users on how to best use these products.”
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