4 People Badly Hurt After Lithium-Ion Battery Fire In Inwood: FDNY

INWOOD, NY — Four people were badly injured after a fire broke out in an Inwood apartment on Sunday, FDNY said.

The blaze broke out around 1:35 a.m. on the fifth floor of 165 Sherman Ave., which firefighters were able to place under control by 2:30 a.m., FDNY said.

Three people were transported to Harlem hospital in serious condition, while another was transported in a stable non-life threatening state, FDNY said.

Multiple publications, including ABC7 and CBS, reported that it was a father and three children who were injuried.

"The cause of the fire on Sherman Avenue was a lithium-ion battery that was charging," FDNY wrote on its Instagram page.

The family in the apartment was sleeping as the battery charged overnight, and once the fire started it blocked the door, FDNY said.

Lithium-ion batteries are used to charge electric bikes, which ABC7 reported as the cause of the flames.

Two of the five people in the apartment were able to run past the flames into the hallway, but the door locked behind them, FDNY said. Another person was rescued by a ladder through a window, while the remaining two people were removed unconscious from the apartment, FDNY added.

"We try to remind all New Yorkers about the dangers of these lithium-ion batteries,"FDNY wrote. "We should not be charging them overnight. We should not be charging them in a path of egress from the apartment."

FDNY added that the apartment did not have a fire alarm.

Along with the Inwood fire on Sunday, a person was killed in a different blaze in Washington Heights on Saturday.