Electric Scooter being charged causes NYC fire that killed one and injured 11

An electric scooter being charged is the cause of a fire that ravaged a residential building in New York City, killing one and injuring 11. The fire started in the middle of the night, around 4;40 am on Wednesday inside an apartment on the third floor of a building located in the Bronx, on Park Ave near E. 161st Street in Concorde Village. Residents heard a loud boom and then the fire spread very quickly to the upper floors of the six-story building. Residents were woken up by the smell of the smoke or by other residents screaming about the fire and asking everybody to get out.

3 unconscious people were removed from the flames by the firefighters

The tenants of the 20 apartments located in the buildings were all forced out extremely quickly and lost everything in the fire. 10 of them were injured as well as one firefighter. Some of the tenants were critically injured and a 91 year old lady died. She was among  the 3 residents that were unconscious when the firefighters pulled them out of the flames. The tow other unconscious residents were an 80 year old man and a 54 year old man. The elderly woman died from smoke inhalation and the two other men were in critical but stable condition.

E-scoooter charging have caused other fires previously

Just like hoverboards and other personal mobility devices, there is a risk that  an e-scooter can catch fire or explode during charging because of faulty batteries or over-charging. So far these types of accidents have been rare in New York, mostly because it has only been a year since such mobility devices are legal in the city. However in Asia where e-scooters have been used for a longer time, cases of e-scooter fires are not uncommon. In Singapore, according to the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF), the cases of e-scooter fires increased by 350% from nine cases in 2016 to 40 in 2017. Below is a video of an electric scooter that exploded in an apartment in China.