A child and a young woman lost their lives on Monday afternoon due to the fire of an electric bicycle which quickly spread through a residential building in New York.
According to the firefighters of the megalopolis, the electric bike, which was directly in the entrance of the residence, caught fire for a reason which remains to be clarified.
“It created a huge inferno on the first floor, which went up to the second floor, where six people were. Four of them were able to jump out of the window, but two others unfortunately died,” detailed New York Fire Department Chief John Hodgens in an Instagram post.
“The way these fires happen is like an explosion of fire. The occupants had really little chance of getting out of it, ”he continued.
Firefighters did not specify the identity of the victims, but according to neighbors interviewed by the New York Timesit would be a 7-year-old child and a 19-year-old young woman.
Twenty fires per month
The fire department showed a certain discouragement by noting that it was already the 59e time he was called to respond to a fire caused by a lithium-ion battery since the beginning of 2023. Monday’s fire brought the death toll in this type of disaster to five.
“We want people to use them [les batteries lithium-ion], but we want them to do it safely. We want people to buy chargers that are compatible with their devices. Don’t buy the worst-performing appliances,” implored Fire Marshal Dan Flynn.
“We lost two people today. We were lucky not to lose six,” he added.
