An e-scooter killed a man after exploding into flames and trapping him inside his apartment.
A faulty lithium-ion battery set the scooter ablaze shortly after 3.30am on Wednesday in a second-floor apartment in the Brighton Beach neighborhood of Brooklyn, said the New York City Fire Department (FDNY).
The fire and heat from the e-scooter were so strong that they blocked a 69-year-old man from exiting his unit, according to FDNY Chief Fire Marshal Daniel Flynn.
Another man, 35, and a woman, 32, who were also home tried to put out the fire – which is not recommended when it involves a battery.
‘They attempted to extinguish the fire (and) they were able to escape with minor injuries,’ Flynn told the New York Post, adding that they were both hospitalized.
‘There were two children as well that self-evacuated that did not sustain injuries.’
The blaze was extinguished around 4.30am, after more than 60 firefighters and emergency responders tended the scene.
A smoke detector had been taken out of the apartment, officials said.
‘I would say that we were kind of lucky that we were able to do that as quickly as we did, considering the heavy fire condition, with minor injuries,’ FDNY Chief of Department John Esposito told the newspaper.
A firefighter was taken to a hospital with minor injuries.
Images of the the charred e-scooter showed it was Garmata brand.
The elderly man’s identity was not immediately released.
It is the fourth death in the city involving a dangerous device, with such fatalities down from 14 around the same time last year, said FDNY Commissioner Robert Tucker.
Tucker said that lithium-ion batteries sold from unregulated sellers are killing people.
‘Although deaths have decreased because people are listening, this is number four, and it’s too many, and I will not stop talking about unregulated lithium-ion batteries and the dangers that they cause until we’re at zero,’ he told the Post.
Standard fire extinguishers do not work very well in stopping fires from lithium-ion batteries, officials said.
The e-scooter is not the only inanimate object that has dangerously exploded recently.
In late September, a Tesla EV flooded with salt water due to Hurricane Helene was video recorded exploding. Salt water can damage electric vehicle batteries and cause chemical reactions and combustions that can be deadly.
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