Two people are in critical condition and five others were seriously injured in the fire. It broke out in a 37-story apartment building in the Midtown East neighborhood, not far from the United Nations headquarters. Speaking at a press conference on Saturday afternoon, Laura Kavanagh of the New York Fire Department said the fire was started in a 20th-floor flat by a lithium battery connected to a mobile object. A resident may have been repairing e-bikes there.
Nearly 200 fires have been registered this year, according to the city’s fire brigade, caused by a lithium-ion battery in an electrically powered means of transport such as an e-bike, e-scooter or e-step. Several people were killed as a result.