Bronx E-Bike Battery Fire Death Toll Reaches Four, FDNY Confirms

The Fire Department confirmed Friday that the death toll from Wednesday's apartment fire at the Patterson Houses in the Bronx has risen to four. The fire broke out at about 12:50 a.m. Wednesday in an 11th-floor apartment at the NYCHA development in Mott Haven, and investigators say it was started by a lithium-ion e-bike battery in the kitchen. A 10-year-old boy died in the first hours after the fire; on Friday, officials confirmed that three more victims — two teenage boys and a 33-year-old woman — had died of their injuries in the hospital. One man remains hospitalized in critical condition.

Fire officials say the burning e-bike was placed in the pathway of the apartment's exit door, turning the home into a trap. Firefighters were forced to break into the apartment because the burning bike and battery blocked the front door, and crews worked for nearly an hour to bring the fire under control. Two firefighters suffered minor injuries while fighting the blaze, according to the Fire Department.

The Patterson Houses deaths land in the middle of a year the Fire Department has repeatedly warned about. FDNY Chief Lillian Bonsignore said this week that lithium-ion batteries have caused 401 fires in the city so far this year, resulting in 74 injuries and six deaths — against 292 fires, 51 injuries and one fatality in all of last year. City officials used the Bronx fire to renew their warnings about charging e-bikes indoors and about the storage rules that apply in public housing.

The fire remains a five-borough warning in a single address: a battery charging by the only door out left a family with no escape route. The Fire Department's guidance is unchanged and direct — charge batteries outside the home where possible, never block an exit with a bike, and never leave a charging battery unattended overnight.