At least 4 dead and 2 critically hurt after overnight fire in NYC e-bike repair shop

At least four people are dead and five injured after a fire in an e-bike repair shop in lower Manhattan early Tuesday, authorities said. 

Two of the injured were reported in critical condition and one of those who died was a 71-year-old man, officials noted.

FDNY Deputy Assistant Chief John Sarrocco told reporters firefighters responding to a 12:15 a.m. call found flames in HQ Ebike Repair on the first floor of the six-story building and put them out, but heavy smoke spread through the rest of the structure. That, he said, is where seven of the injured were found.

CBS New York reports that first responders had to rescue people from an apartment above the shop.

Six people were initially listed in critical condition, fire officials said. The seventh suffered minor injuries, as did a firefighter and an EMT.

Police said four of the injured later died, including the 71-year-old man. One of the others whose life was lost was a man and the other two were women.

The owner of a nearby delicatessen told CBS New York, “I step out, I look, it’s a huge flame coming out of the gate. I call the fire department, they come within 10 minutes. Once they got here, the flames started getting bigger and stronger… It was a whole mess.”

The station says that, while the blaze’s cause is under investigation, piles of e-bikes and scooters were pulled from the shop.

The lithium-ion batteries that power e-bikes and e-scooters catch fire “with some regularity — and the numbers are rising,” The Washington Post quotes the National Fire Protection Association as saying. The association also says the batteries are known to cause explosions. And smoke from the batteries can also be toxic, experts say.