HQ E-Bike Repair at 80 Madison St. in Chinatown was a bomb factory masquerading as a harmless bike shop, housing e-bikes and electric scooters fueled by lithium-ion batteries. This newish micromobility is a great boon to economical and speedy travel, especially for deliverymen and deliverywomen to quickly bring that restaurant order, but the unstable power cells have a tendency to make a great boom and explode.
Where once was HQ E-Bike Repair is now just a smoldering ruin that was consumed by erupting flames late Monday night, killing at least four people in the apartments above. That makes for 13 dead from lithium-ion battery fires this year, which is still less than half over. During 2022, lithium-ion battery fires claimed six lives in New York City, so we are on track to quadruple the death toll.
How many more must die? How many more homes must be destroyed? How many more times must the heroes of the FDNY race out to fight chemical flames that burn hotter and faster than normal blazes and then reignite even after being drowned in water? How many more calls before one of the Bravest dies? All from fires that can be prevented.
Fire Commissioner Laura Kavanagh has raised the national alarm on these lithium-ion battery menaces and their threat to life and property. The response from others in government, in City Hall, Albany and Washington, must be still stronger. Even if every e-bike and scooter sold in New York City was UL certified, inspected and guaranteed safe, there remain tens of thousands of cheap and dangerous models out there, as well as old batteries that have been rejiggered to squeeze a few more charges from them. Sure, they are fine to use. Until they explode and kill people.
Put a bounty on these things, collect them all and safely dispose of them. Otherwise, the explosions, the fires and deaths will just keep going on. We don’t need any more warnings and we don’t need any more funerals.
