NYC has just as many e-bike battery fires as last year, but far fewer deaths

E-bike battery fires are continuing at an alarming rate in New York, but there's a positive twist: The number of people dying has plummeted, the FDNY says.

The reason? People seem to be heeding warnings to keep e-bike batteries outside, where fires are less deadly.

Fires caused by exploding lithium-ion batteries from e-bikes and other micromobility devices used by meal delivery workers are the city’s biggest, and newest, fire threat. Last year, 28 people died from such blazes, leading to the deadliest year for fires in the city in two decades.

The number of battery fires hasn't abated. As of Thursday, there were 134 so far this year, which is about the same as last year at this time, according to the FDNY. But the big difference is with fatalities from those fires: 13 at this point last year, and just one so far this year.

Injuries have also dropped dramatically, from 92 to 55.

FDNY Chief Fire Marshal Daniel Flynn said investigations of fire scenes indicate that more people are keeping e-bikes and batteries outside – as fire officials and public safety announcements have urged. Therefore, when fires start they are less likely to harm people.

“Even if you’re a skeptical person there’s no way you can argue that the efforts we’ve conducted have not made a tremendous difference,” Flynn said. “I think we’ve saved lives in the work that we’ve done so far, and I hope that continues.”

Last year the City Council passed a law banning the sale of e-bikes and batteries that aren’t certified as safe, which Flynn said might have also mitigated the threat. To enforce the law, the FDNY and other city inspectors are conducting inspections of e-bike shops and other informal e-bike charging stations. Two retailers were criminally charged this year after, authorities said, they repeatedly violated the fire code in the storage and charging of e-bike batteries.

FDNY’s recent warnings include keeping the batteries away from front doors and hallways, and not charging them unattended. Battery fires spread quickly , are difficult to suppress and occur more often when the e-bikes are not plugged in and charging, Flynn said. As long as there’s power surging through some batteries — some of which are cobbled together in illegal shops from disparate parts — they are susceptible to explosion, Flynn said.

A new public awareness campaign , launched last week in 10 languages, includes the warning that batteries can explode even if they’re not plugged in.

“Education works,” Fire Commissioner Laura Kavanagh said at a press conference last week. “We’re seeing that people are keeping these outside, that they’re storing them more safely, and because they are, they are able to get out of their apartments. So they’re having these fires, but they’re safer when the fires happen.”

Kavanagh also announced additional efforts to address the fire hazard, including a pending change in the city’s administrative code that would allow property owners to install battery charging cabinets on the sidewalks outside of their properties. The cabinets, a handful of which have already opened, means delivery workers don’t have to charge the batteries inside their homes.