In 2023, after a number of e-bike battery fires erupted inside New York Metropolis Housing Authority flats, together with a blaze that killed a 5-year-old lady and a 36-year-old lady, NYCHA thought-about banning the gadgets fully from authority property.
However opposition emerged from these arguing that some NYCHA residents depend on e-bikes to make a dwelling, so NYCHA compromised, proscribing households to charging just one battery at a time, requiring that batteries be safety-certified and prohibiting the charging of batteries in entrance of any entrance door or anyplace that would block escape within the occasion of a fireplace.
The compromise seems to have made little distinction.
Because the protocol began in 2024, the variety of e-bike battery fires inside NYCHA properties has risen, with 13 that 12 months rising to 22 to date in 2026. All informed there have been 53 battery fires in NYCHA because the rule went into impact.
That features Monday’s lethal fireplace on the Patterson Homes in The Bronx that killed an 11-year-old boy and critically injured 4 members of the family, in addition to a fireplace in August on the Albany Homes in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, the place an 18-year-old perished.
In each instances, the circumstances that triggered the lethal fires point out potential violations of NYCHA’s rule: the batteries had been being charged in areas that fireside officers stated blocked escape — within the Bronx fireplace it was within the kitchen, blocking the best way to the exit door; within the Brooklyn blaze it was subsequent to the entry door.
And NYCHA requires that charging happen when at the least one resident over 18 is awake. Within the Bronx case, the fireplace erupted round one within the morning.
This week’s fireplace in The Bronx raised questions on how a lot effort NYCHA makes to implement the e-bike battery charging rule. Charging a battery in a way that violates the charging rule is a violation of the family’s lease. With 53 battery fires because the rule went into impact, NYCHA acknowledged to The Metropolis Reporter Thursday that there have been simply three terminations of tenancy began for non-compliance with the coverage.
It’s not clear how aggressively NYCHA displays compliance. Compliance with the battery-charging rule isn’t included on NYCHA’s annual residence inspection type, neither is it a part of the shape staffers fill out when performing interim checks referred to as “5 Alive,” a five-point inspection that happens each time an worker enters an residence to carry out upkeep or repairs.
As an alternative, NYCHA stated, workers are instructed to verbally report non-compliant battery charging to a supervisor who will then talk about the violation and treatment with the tenant.
The Patterson Homes residence the place the battery exploded this week had obtained a “5 Alive” inspection seven months earlier in March. NYCHA stated the employees didn’t observe improper battery charging throughout the inspection.
On Wednesday, talking outdoors the positioning of the Patterson Homes fireplace, Housing Authority CEO Lisa Bova-Hiatt acknowledged that charging a battery at an entryway “is a lease violation, however clearly NYCHA’s foremost objective as a public housing authority is to maintain folks housed. We want people to pay attention and comply with the coverage, and that’s the place we’re.”
She additionally famous that NYCHA will present relocation providers to the affected household and carry out required repairs within the residence and some other flats or frequent areas affected by the fireplace.
Housing Authority officers emphasised the lease utility mailed to every family yearly accommodates the FDNY’s Hearth and Emergency Preparedness bulletin on the correct technique to safely cost lithium-ion batteries, and the authority’s Resident Handbook accommodates an up to date e-micromobility coverage as effectively.
‘Thermal Runaway’
Hearth Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore famous NYCHA’s “particular curriculum on battery steerage,” and inspired “all New Yorkers to comply with the very best practices in preserving everybody secure. Lithium-ion battery fires are extraordinarily harmful as a result of they unfold quick and ferociously. The battery cells go into thermal runaway, which makes a small fireplace flip into a really massive fireplace very, in a short time.”
Bonsignore identified that the variety of e-bike battery fires citywide has risen steadily because the division started monitoring them in 2019, significantly in the previous couple of years. Final 12 months there have been 292 with one fatality, to date this 12 months there have been 401 — with six fatalities.
On Thursday Kristina Diaz, who lives subsequent door to the residence the place the fireplace broke out, stated she was in shock at what had occurred, noting that moreover the dying of the 11-year-old, Zion Maine, 4 of his members of the family remained hospitalized in important situation.
“Oh God. The entire household. They was well mannered. They was pleasant,” she recalled. “Each morning they got here out, the boy’s first phrases had been, ‘Good morning King. Good morning Queen.’ Very respectful.”
Ben Fractenberg contributed reporting.
