FDNY Cracks Down On Illegal Refurbished Batteries At Chinatown E-Bike Shops

By Greg B. Smith, THE CITY

June 29, 2023

A week after an exploding e-bike battery caused a fire that killed four people in Chinatown, fire inspectors discovered another disaster in the making just blocks away, THE CITY has learned.

On Tuesday, FDNY inspectors found illegal tampered-with batteries inside an e-bike sales and repair shop at 91 Canal St., fire officials told THE CITY.

The discovery came as part of a push to look for refurbished batteries — which were banned in March — following the fire at 80 Madison St. that killed tenants who lived above the e-bike store.
The Fire Department was scheduled to announce Thursday a recent enhanced enforcement of rules regarding lithium-ion batteries.

THE CITY also learned Thursday that inspectors sifting through the remains of the fire at 80 Madison found several illegally tampered-with batteries. During a prior inspection at that store in August, they had no access to the building’s basement, where multiple e-bikes and batteries were found after the fire.

The FDNY issued violations for illegally possessing refurbished batteries at both 80 Madison and 91 Canal St., but it’s not clear how many violations the FDNY has handed out since the law banning second-use batteries went into effect March 20.

“I don’t know the specific number of those violations but we were intimately involved in negotiating that law and it was part of a package of bills that has been incredibly helpful,” Fire Commissioner Laura Kavanagh said last week.

Fire inspectors targeted the 91 Canal St. store for inspection this week after a tip led to a check-in last month in which they found 129 batteries stored for charging.

The FDNY issued several violations for unsafe conditions, including batteries placed too closely together and the particularly dangerous use of extension cords to charge the batteries. They also removed some batteries in dangerous condition but did not issue a Local Law 42 citation.

The Buildings Department also issued several more violations to the building’s owner, Canal Property Inc., after discovering two residential single-room occupancy units at the back of the store.

The e-bike store at 91 Canal St. is located on the first floor below three stories of what appear to be residential units. A sign recently hung on the building’s fire escape advertises “Loft For Rent.”

After the May visit, the city began the process of ordering the store to be closed but first notified e-bike owners who had stashed batteries there for charging to retrieve them. That process was still underway when the fire on Madison Street erupted June 20.

After the Madison St. fire, the FDNY returned to Canal Street. Based on interviews with workers, fire officials determined they had been modifying batteries, with the FDNY issuing multiple violations for unsafe conditions and sealing the store.

Batteries that have been tampered with or are not safety tested by Universal Laboratories (UL) are prone to explosion, particularly if they are not properly charged and maintained. Last fall THE CITY found these fires erupting across the five boroughs in both commercial and residential buildings where e-bikes and e-scooters are stored and charged.

Lithium-ion battery-related fires jumped to 220 last year — a 633% increase from 2019, when there were 30 such fires. There have been 108 so far in 2023.

According to the FDNY, 23 people have died in fires sparked by e-bike batteries, including 13 this year. Among them are the four victims of the June 20 Chinatown fire, which claimed the lives of two men, ages 71 and 80 and two women, 62 and 65.

THE CITY is an independent, nonprofit news organization dedicated to hard-hitting reporting that serves the people of New York.