A 76-year-old woman died in a fire after an e-bike battery exploded in a Queens pizzeria, trapping her in the bathroom, FDNY officials said Tuesday.
The blaze inside Singas Famous Pizza in Flushing was the first fatal fire caused by a lithium-ion battery this year, FDNY officials said.
The blaze broke inside the pizzeria on Kissena Blvd. near Beech Ave. about 3:30 p.m. Friday, FDNY officials said.
The victim was eating at the chain pizzeria and went to use the bathroom when an e-bike used for deliveries that had been left next to the bathroom burst into flames.
“These things take off very, very quickly,” FDNY Fire Marshal Daniel Flynn said at a Tuesday press conference outside the now-shuttered pizzeria. “The woman was in the bathroom and was trapped and couldn’t get out.”
The victim finally exited the bathroom and ran through the flames in a desperate attempt to escape but was overcome by the smoke and collapsed before reaching the exit, Flynn said.
“These fires are very treacherous. They move very quickly and they are very hot,” FDNY Commissioner Robert Tucker said. “You can’t go far before you’re overtaken.”
Four other workers and customers in the pizzeria managed to escape unscathed.
Responding firefighters pulled the woman from the burning eatery and medics rushed her to New York-Presbyterian Queens, where she died the next day, Tucker said. Her name wasn’t immediately released.
“(These devices) can be extremely dangerous,” Tucker said. “We have been working so hard to put out the message that e-mobility devices do not belong inside. You can’t charge them inside and must buy a certified UL (Underwriters Laboratories) battery.”
More than 106 firefighters and emergency medical technicians responded to the blaze. The fire was brought under control in under an hour.
Last year, six people died in lithium-ion battery fires citywide, FDNY officials said. In 2023, 20 people died from e-bike or e-scooter fires.
So far this year the FDNY has fought 122 lithium-ion battery fires but this was the first one to go fatal, officials said. The steep drop in fatalities shows that city residents have taken the FDNY’s warnings to heart — but “one death is too many,” Tucker said.
“I will not stop talking about lithium-ion battery safety until the number is zero,” Tucker added.
In April, the FDNY put out a public service announcement titled “Take It Outside” to encourage New Yorkers to charge their lithium-ion devices away from their homes to protect people and property.
In 2019, when the FDNY first started separately tracking these fires, only 13 blazes were attributed to the batteries. By 2020, the number had more than tripled to 44.
FDNY investigators and battery experts say the exploding electrical devices are usually not certified by Underwriters Laboratories or another safety inspection company but bought cheap online or in area scooter stores instead to supplement or replace batteries included with scooters or e-bikes as original equipment.
Many delivery workers buy a supply of knockoff backup batteries so their e-bikes and scooters can stay continuously charged.
As the number of lithium-ion battery fires increased, the FDNY began a massive public service announcement campaign to encourage e-bike and e-scooter owners to use only factory-installed batteries, not charge them overnight, and keep the bikes outside if possible.
The department also pushed city lawmakers to make the sale of uncertified lithium-ion batteries illegal and ramped up inspections at e-bike stores and improved its response tactics.
