A firefighter was hospitalized early Thursday after a fire erupted inside a Queens electric scooter store, the FDNY said.
It was the second time that firefighters had responded to a blaze at The Kings Electric Scooters shop on Jamaica Ave. as the FDNY continued to tamp down on lithium-ion battery fires throughout the five boroughs.
On March 13, 2023 an e-bike battery being repaired at the store exploded and caught fire, FDNY officials said. The blaze quickly spread to other e-bikes in the shop.
The blaze broke out inside the store near 104th St. in Hollis at about 2:30 a.m. and quickly tore through the two-story building.
Multiple e-bikes and scooters caught fire inside the shop as the fire raged. Firefighters had to douse the bikes down and yank them out of the store, where they were left smoldering in melted plastic and metal heaps on the sidewalk, 1010Wins reported.
Responding firefighters put out the blaze within an hour. One firefighter was taken to Jamaica Hospital with a minor injury.
Dozens of scorched e-bikes and gas scooters on sidewalk of King Electric Scooters Jamaica Avenue and 104th street Queens one minor FF injury @1010WINS @wcbs880 pic.twitter.com/dqM1vA4OCa
— glenn schuck (@glennschuck) August 22, 2024
An FDNY hazmat team was called in to package and safely store the lithium-ion batteries that caught fire as well as the ones that didn’t. Batteries that catch fire can re-ignite unless they’re safely packaged, FDNY officials said.
FDNY officials at the scene say they have responded to Kings Electric Scooters to put out a blaze before, 1010Wins reported. Details on that previous fire was not immediately released.
The FDNY Fire Marshals were trying to determine what sparked the early morning fire. While damaged or poorly built e-bike batteries have been known to explode and start fires, it wasn’t immediately clear if the batteries were the direct cause of Thursday’s blaze.
As of July 15th, lithium-ion batteries have sparked 121 fires in the city resulting in 52 injuries and one death. The number was greatly reduced then last year, when 124 fires caused by lithium-ion batteries led to 85 injuries and 13 deaths by mid-July, FDNY officials said.
In March, a raging Bronx fire that left 10 people hurt and displaced 26 residents was sparked by a lithium-ion battery-powered e-bike stored under the stairs, said FDNY officials. In February, a battery sparked a blaze in Harlem that killed a Columbia Journalism School graduate and injured 17 others.
Factory-installed scooter batteries seem safe and adhere to industry standards, safety experts say. The batteries that tend to combust are after-market items e-bike users buy online or in scooter stores as supplements or replacements for the battery that came with the device, said FDNY officials.
Many deliveristas buy knock-off backup batteries so their rides can stay continuously charged.
The Fire Department recommends that scooter owners never charge batteries unattended, and that they should be charged outdoors.
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