E-bike battery fire kills 11-year-old boy in Bronx apartment, four critically injured as bike blocked the exit door, NYC counts 401 lithium fires this year while nobody in the chain owns the risk

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An 11-year-old boy was killed and four people — two teenagers and two adults — left in critical condition when a lithium-ion battery on an e-bike caught fire in a Bronx apartment. The fire broke out around 12:50 a.m. on the 11th floor of a building in the Patterson Houses complex in Mott Haven, where the bike had been parked near the apartment's exit door. Fire Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore said the flames spread quickly from the kitchen; the bike's placement made escape impossible, and firefighters had to force the door and crawl past uncontrolled fire to reach the victims. One victim was found behind the door. Some 38 units and 120 fire and medical personnel responded, bringing the blaze under control by 2 a.m.

The numbers keep climbing. New York City has recorded 401 lithium-ion battery fires so far this year, causing 74 injuries and six deaths — up from 292 fires, 51 injuries and one death last year. Mayor Zohran Mamdani urged residents to store e-bikes and similar devices outside their homes. The e-bike's nearness to the exit door turned a battery failure into a fatal trap, a pattern fire officials have flagged repeatedly as delivery riders and commuters charge cheap imported packs in cramped apartments.

Every link in the chain escapes the cost. The importer sells and vanishes, the landlord never certified the charging setup, and the city bans in retrospect. The rider who needs the bike to work is the one who sleeps next to it.