How E-Bike battery fires became a deadly crisis in New York City

His girlfriend told him not to buy the electric scooter.

But Alfonso Villa Muñoz was intrigued. He was working in a Brooklyn bodega last August when a delivery man said he knew someone selling one for $700. Muñoz said yes.

The scooter was cherry red with the number 7 on the front. Under the seat was an extra-large lithium ion battery. When it needed charging, Muñoz would remove the battery from the scooter and use both hands to lug it up to the couple’s third-floor apartment in College Point, Queens.

A month later, the battery exploded in the living room, unleashing flames that engulfed the apartment. Muñoz screamed for their 8-year-old daughter, Stephanie, who was asleep. He could not breach the wall of black smoke to get to her. Stephanie died from smoke inhalation.

“It’s like you bring in death and destruction to your house, and not only to you, to everybody around you,” said Muñoz, 36, pulling off his glasses to wipe away tears. “You could lose everything.”

E-bikes and e-scooters have flooded New York City’s streets in recent years, embraced by delivery workers and commuters as an economical and efficient new way to get around. But even as the devices have become nearly ubiquitous, the batteries inside them have made New York City an epicenter for a new kind of ferocious and fast-moving fire.

 

Read more on The New York Times: How E-Bike Battery Fires Became a Deadly Crisis in New York City