Fire in off-the-books e-bike battery repair shop in Queens injures firefighter, 3 residents

An off-the-books e-bike artillery repair store successful the basement of a Queens location sparked a monolithic Friday greeting blaze that near a firefighter and 3 gathering residents hospitalized, FDNY officials said.

The occurrence broke retired connected the archetypal level of the three-story location connected 60th Ave. adjacent 146th St. successful Flushing conscionable earlier 5:30 a.m., said FDNY Chief Christopher Paolicelli, who explained that a frozen hydrant delayed the exigency response.

“The archetypal companies got determination and they had dense occurrence coming retired the archetypal floor,” Paolicelli said connected X. “When they stretched their hose, they had a frozen hydrant successful beforehand of the building, truthful they had to spell up and find different hydrant up the road, truthful determination was a hold successful water. We person h2o successful the occurrence engine, the booster, truthful they were capable to usage that h2o until the chauffeur was capable to unafraid a moving hydrant that was further up the block.”

An off-the-books e-bike artillery repair store successful the basement of a location sparked a monolithic occurrence that near a firefighter and 3 gathering residents hospitalized connected Friday, Jan. 24, 2025, connected 60th Ave. successful Queens, New York. (Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News)

When firefighters entered the gathering they were “faced with dense fire,” the main said.

At the aforesaid time, 2 gathering residents were recovered escaping retired of the backmost of the home, suffering from fume inhalation.

It took firefighters astir an hr to enactment retired the blaze. Three residents and a firefighter were taken to country hospitals with insignificant injuries.

As the fume cleared, firefighters “saw that it was aggregate e-bikes and lithium-ion batteries that had been connected fire,” Paolicelli said.

An off-the-books e-bike artillery repair store successful the basement of a location sparked a monolithic occurrence that near a firefighter and 3 gathering residents hospitalized connected Friday, Jan. 24, 2025, connected 60th Ave. successful Queens, New York. (Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News)

One of the tenants successful the building, FDNY occurrence marshals aboriginal learned, was moving an e-bike repair store connected the archetypal level and basement of the home, wherever the e-bikes and batteries were found.

Fire Marshals recovered some lithium-ion batteries, arsenic good arsenic accepted pb acerb batteries, a root with cognition of the lawsuit said. Marshals aboriginal determined that 1 of the lithium-ion batteries sparked the fire.

The Queens blaze comes arsenic the FDNY has seen significant advancement successful the combat against lithium-ion artillery fires.

At 5:27 this morning, the FDNY responded to reports of a occurrence at 142-33 60th Avenue successful Queens. 

“The archetypal companies got determination and they had dense occurrence coming retired the archetypal floor. When they stretched their hose, they had  a frozen hydrant successful beforehand of the building, truthful they had to… pic.twitter.com/XbRftvOl6T

— FDNY (@FDNY) January 24, 2025

Last year, six radical died from e-bike-related fires — conscionable a 3rd of the 18 fatalities that took spot successful 2023, FDNY Commissioner Robert Tucker said.

“Our department’s dedication to occurrence prevention, education, and outreach has saved lives,” Tucker said earlier this month. “Fire-related fatalities are down by 25% compared to past year, with a important 67 percent simplification successful deaths related to lithium-ion batteries.

“One decease is excessively many, but this advancement is the effect of enhanced nationalist education, inspection efforts, and greater assemblage engagement,” helium said. “Despite the higher measurement of calls, our EMS unit and firefighters person worked tirelessly to prevention lives, and their efforts person helped marque 2024 a safer twelvemonth for New Yorkers.”

Off-the-books e-bike artillery repair store successful basement of a location sparked a monolithic occurrence successful Queens. (Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News)

Last year, the FDNY Lithium-ion Battery Task Force inspected 585 e-bike shops, a 25% summation from 2023, the section noted. Inspectors  issued 426 FDNY Summons, 138 usurpation orders, 32 transgression summonses, and issued 7 vacate orders with the Department of Buildings.