Four people were killed, including a 71-year-old man, after a fire tore through an e-bike service store on the first floor of a building near Manhattan’s Chinatown neighborhood early Tuesday morning, according to the police.
The fire, at a six-story mixed-use building at 80 Madison Street, started around 12:15 a.m. and spread through the store, which has residential apartments above it, according to officials. About 140 firefighters and emergency personnel responded.
Six adults were taken to three area hospitals, where four of them — two women and two men — died. The other two, both women, were in critical condition, the police said.
The fire left soot smeared above the broken-out windows of the building, which also houses a deli, a laundromat and a news stand. A mountain of charred e-bikes and scooters was piled up on the corner.
The cause of the fire was under investigation Tuesday morning, the New York Fire Department said.
The Red Cross said in a tweet that it was providing emergency shelter for eight households, comprising 23 adults and two children.
As e-bikes and scooters have become ubiquitous in the city since the pandemic, where they are widely used by delivery workers and for general transport, officials have grappled with the flammability of the lithium-ion batteries that power them and the risk they pose to New Yorkers.
Lithium-ion batteries, which also power devices like phones, laptops and power tools, started about 200 fires in New York City last year. This year, the batteries have become the leading cause of fire deaths in the city, according to fire officials.
In March, New York City adopted a groundbreaking package of laws that bans the sale or lease of e-bikes and e-scooters that fail to meet recognized safety standards and also prohibits the refurbishing of used lithium batteries.
Mayor Eric Adams also announced a “Charge Safe, Ride Safe” action plan. The plan called for the creation of a fire marshal task force focused on identifying high-risk situations and fire code violations. It also called for increased public education efforts about the dangers of lithium batteries.
In April, two siblings, a 19-year-old girl and her 7-year-old brother, were killed in an “explosion of fire” caused by an e-bike that was being charged near the front door of an apartment building in the Astoria neighborhood of Queens.
Winnie Hu contributed reporting.
This is a developing story and will be updated.