Another lithium-ion battery fire at Manhattan e-bike shop as workers clean site of deadly Chinatown blaze that killed four

2023/06/24
Firefighters take a reading after dousing the exploded batteries on Saturday, June 24, 2023, in New York. - Theodore Parisienne/New York Daily News/TNS

NEW YORK — Residents of Manhattan’s Chinatown were rattled again Saturday when a fire blew the lid off a barrel filled with lithium ion batteries outside the e-bike business where a raging blaze left four people dead.

No one was injured in the blast, which happened as contractors hired by the city were removing the dangerous batteries outside the HQ E-Bike Repair at 80 Madison Ave. around 12:30 p.m., said FDNY spokesman Jim Long.

An eyewitnesses said the barrel lid popped three stories into the air before landing as the cleanup from Tuesday’s deadly fire continued. Authorities later placed the removal of batteries on hold until further notice.

“I heard the explosion,” said Thiy Alsaidi, who works at a nearby deli. “It’s the third time the fire reignited. It’s very dangerous. I was really scared. It’s a dangerous scenario.”

The fire began as the barrel was loaded onto a truck, with pressure likely created by lingering heat from the batteries blamed for the incident that brought 20 firefighters to the scene, officials said.

The FDNY quickly doused the blaze before spraying down the other barrels to prevent any further problems. Similar fires occurred there on Thursday and Friday.

“There shouldn’t be e-bike stores in residential neighborhoods,” said one unnerved local man. “The way they run these stores should be regulated ... That’s really scary.”

Firefighters on the scene were drilling holes into the remaining barrels to decrease the pressure and prevent a recurrence.

Four Chinatown residents were killed early Tuesday after the 12:15 a.m. e-bike fire tore through the repair shop previously cited for unsafe conditions.

Two senior citizens were severely injured but expected to recover from injuries they suffered in the blaze, which began inside the business on the ground floor of of the six-story retail and residential building.

HQ E-Bike Repair was targeted twice by authorities since 2021 and fined $1,600 last year for violations including charging batteries stacked alongside one another and plugged into extension cords.

According to city officials, 13 New Yorkers were killed and another 71 injured in lithium ion battery fires so far this year. In contrast, only four deaths were linked to the batteries in 2021.

Ten other e-bike shops were cited in the last week, with four inspected after calls to the 311 hotline.

In the Tuesday fire, flames and billowing smoke quickly spread through the building above the business, with panicked residents fleeing into the darkness outside.

“It’s very shocking, very nerve-wracking,” said a local man after the Saturday scare. “There’s so many barrels with batteries in them.”

Theodore Parisienne/New York Daily News/TNS