Fire Dept. Targets E-Bike Shops in Crackdown on Battery Hazards
The Latest
New York City fire and building officials shut down an e-bike shop in Manhattan this week after finding more than 100 lithium-ion batteries inside, part of a crackdown on unsafe battery conditions after a recent blaze at an e-bike shop killed four people.
The building at 91 Canal Street, which includes residential apartments above the e-bike shop, was also vacated after officials found numerous safety and building violations, including damaged batteries and overloaded power strips.
Several of the batteries caught fire as they were being removed.
“This location was essentially a ticking time bomb,” the fire commissioner, Laura Kavanagh, said at a news conference on Thursday.
The Fire Department has been targeting hazardous lithium battery conditions at e-bike shops since the deadly blaze last week, also in Chinatown.
Since then, the department’s fire prevention unit and local fire companies have conducted nearly 180 inspections of e-bike and e-bike repair shops, resulting in dozens of violations and summonses.
“We are not kidding around as you can see here,” Commissioner Kavanagh said. “We will continue to inspect and reinspect locations to ensure batteries are being used safely.”
Source: The New York Times
