Another Bronx building fire. A familiar cause: Lithium-ion batteries

An FDNY spokesperson told the Bronx Times that there have been 113 lithium-ion battery-related fires in 2023, resulting in 71 injuries and 13 deaths.

File photo/Dean Moses

FDNY officials attribute the cause of an apartment building fire that injured nine people in the Concourse Village section Wednesday to a lithium-ion battery. An FDNY spokesperson told the Bronx Times that there have been 113 lithium-ion battery-related fires in 2023, resulting in 71 injuries and 13 deaths.

The fire broke out at 289 Bonner Place around 6:38 a.m. with a large blaze on the third floor of the five-story building. Fire officials say the fire extended to the fourth floor and affected multiple apartments.

The nine injuries are non-life threatening, and FDNY officials noted a lack of smoke detectors present and a fire exit door in the building left open during evacuation.

Wednesday’s apartment fire required the response of nearly 120 firefighters to contain, with two suffering injuries during the response call.

When lithium–ion batteries and other high energy density batteries are poorly made, overused, incorrectly refurbished, or charged too long, they can cause large, fast-spreading fires that are hard to extinguish, according to fire experts.

In New York City alone, since just the start of 2023, several high-profile fires — such as a blaze at a Chinatown e-bike store that killed four just last week — have been traced to lithium–ion batteries.

On May 16, a three-alarm fire in the University Heights section of the Bronx was caused by a lithium–ion battery.

City and state leaders have been attempting to regulate battery-powered mobility devices and recently, U.S. Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kristen Gillibrand secured $25 million in emergency funds from the U.S. Department of Transportation to build safe charging stations for e-bikes outside NYCHA buildings.

During a March 2 New York City Council meeting, the council passed several bills related to…