{"id":21712,"date":"2025-10-29T20:01:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T20:01:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/21712\/"},"modified":"2025-10-29T20:01:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T20:01:07","slug":"fdny-chief-says-he-would-live-next-to-lithium-battery-storage-plant-opponents-charge-battery-farms-in-residential-areas-a-farce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/21712\/","title":{"rendered":"FDNY chief says he would live next to lithium battery storage plant\u2014 opponents charge battery farms in residential areas a \u2018farce\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

FDNY officials and environmental advocates insisted Tuesday that New York City\u2019s rigorous review system makes lithium-ion battery storage facilities<\/a> safe enough to live next to during a tense City Council oversight hearing where lawmakers and residents pressed concerns about fire risks and facilities planned close to homes and schools.<\/p>\n

Chief Thomas Currao, who leads the FDNY\u2019s Bureau of Fire Prevention, said the department\u2019s multilayered safety checks have made the city\u2019s oversight \u201cthe benchmark for the safety of urban energy storage systems.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe FDNY represents a multi-step safety gateway,\u201d Currao said, detailing full-scale fire testing, plan reviews, and inspections before any site is approved. \u201cWe have code that is widely recognized as the most robust, comprehensive, and strict in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lithium-ion battery energy storage systems, known as BESS<\/a>, store renewable energy and release it when demand peaks, often on sweltering days when the grid is strained. Supporters say they are key to replacing fossil-fuel \u201cpeaker\u201d plants, particularly in dense cities.<\/p>\n

Energy storage facilities, or battery farms, are popping up citywide as New York state moves from 359 to 6,000 megawatts of storage to meet clean-energy mandates. Their arrival has seen sustained protest from locals across Staten Island<\/a>, Queens<\/a>, and Brooklyn<\/a> who have fumed about their lack of input.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2023, several battery fires occurred across New York, smoldering intermittently for days from Jefferson County in the north to Orange County in the south. In January, a fire at one of the world\u2019s largest BESS plants in Northern California<\/a> forced the evacuation of about 1,500 people and shut down a major highway.<\/p>\n

Fire incidents like these have only amplified scrutiny of BESS in residential areas.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

Under city code, battery farms may be sited as close as 10 feet from neighboring properties, a standard that residents and some lawmakers argue needs fine-tuning in a dense, row-house city.\n<\/p>\n

Would FDNY live next door to one?<\/p>\n

Anxiety also persists among residents who continue to associate lithium batteries with the hundreds of fires caused by uncertified e-bike devices each year.<\/p>\n

FDNY officials stressed the distinction at Tuesday\u2019s Committee on Fire and Emergency Management.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

Chief Joseph Loftus, who heads the department\u2019s hazardous materials unit, said more than 90 percent of the battery fires FDNY responds to involve uncertified consumer products \u2014 not industrial storage systems like those being built around the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it comes down to battery energy storage systems\u2026 these are highly engineered,\u201d Loftus said. \u201cThey have what they call a battery management system. If there\u2019s a failure, it shuts down beforehand. We can remotely monitor it. It regulates the battery\u2019s health.\u201d<\/p>\n

Loftus cited national data that he said shows growth in technology has coincided with declining risk.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had a 98 percent decrease in fires in these highly engineered systems,\u201d he said, despite what he described as a 25,000-percent increase in installations over the past six years.
\n\"FDNYFDNY Chief Thomas Currao, Chief of Prevention, and Chief Joseph Loftus, Acting Chief of Hazmat Operations, along with city officials Kathleen Schmidt, and Elijah Hutchinson, testify before the City CouncilPhoto by Gerardo Romo \/ NYC Council Media Unit.\n<\/p>\n

Committee Chair Joann Ariola, who represents parts of Queens, pushed FDNY officials to back up their confidence in personal terms.<\/p>\n

When asked whether he would feel comfortable living next door to a battery site, Loftus responded, \u201cAs for safety reasons, yes, I would be very confident in the fire department, the technology that\u2019s allowed in there\u2026 I would be confident that the fire department can handle a situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ariola shot back: \u201cYou might be the only person in New York City who feels that way\u2026 people in my community and many others don\u2019t feel safe because these battery energy storage systems are going into residential areas when they could be put in more industrial areas.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not against clean energy,\u201d she added. \u201cWe\u2019re against placing these facilities right on top of our communities.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\u2018How stupid is this?\u2019<\/p>\n

Council Member Robert Holden of Queens joined Chair Joann Ariola in pressing officials on why large-scale lithium-ion battery storage systems were being placed in residential neighborhoods rather than industrial zones.<\/p>\n

Holden said one proposed site in his district would be \u201cright across from a cage with over 1,100 students,\u201d calling the decision \u201ca farce.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWould you worry about your kids going to that school?\u201d he asked FDNY officials. \u201cWhen you said you can\u2019t put out the fire, you let them burn? There\u2019s thermal runaway in the air that could be deadly to human beings.\u201d<\/p>\n

FDNY Chief Joseph Loftus acknowledged that in the event of a lithium-ion battery fire, the department\u2019s strategy often involves containing the blaze rather than extinguishing it outright.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe could [put them out], but I wouldn\u2019t,\u201d Loftus said. \u201cBy putting them out, you could have an explosion. There\u2019s gas that could trap it, so we let them burn. That\u2019s the policy that we have in the FDNY.\u201d<\/p>\n

Holden said that the response reinforced his fears about the technology\u2019s safety. \u201cOther cities and states have put this in industrial areas,\u201d he said. \u201cBut New York City, which is very congested, crowded, and everybody\u2019s on top of one another, we think it should be right across from schools? How stupid is this?\u201d<\/p>\n

He accused the city of prioritizing private developers and zoning flexibility over public safety. \u201cWe\u2019ve been sold out,\u201d Holden said. \u201cThe administration is telling us, well, we\u2019re not really siting these, the City of Yes allows this. Are you kidding? This is such a farce.\u201d<\/p>\n

He urged the Council to impose strict setback rules and relocate battery storage to manufacturing zones. \u201cWe need zoning on this,\u201d Holden said. \u201cWe need to have these in industrial areas away from residential, because people are afraid.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"BESS: This system is used to store renewable energy and then use it when needed.Photo by Getty Images<\/p>\n

Officials from the Mayor\u2019s Office of Climate and Environmental Justice defended the policy, saying batteries need to be located near where the electricity is consumed to stabilize the grid.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou need these storage units in the areas that are actually using the energy,\u201d said Executive Director Elijah Hutchinson. \u201cIf they\u2019re too far away, they don\u2019t provide those local benefits to the residents that need them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Holden pressed back, arguing that upstate New York hosts facilities miles from populated areas. \u201cUpstate, sometimes it\u2019s 10 miles away,\u201d he said. \u201cTell me why it\u2019s different upstate than it is here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hutchinson responded that New York City\u2019s dense urban grid makes its infrastructure fundamentally different.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThe upstate grid is much more dispersed,\u201d he said. \u201cTheir substations are farther apart. In the city, we have many smaller substations that serve different, tighter footprints. The relationship of the energy storage station to the larger distribution grid directs where the energy can be helpful when it\u2019s being used.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Safer than fossil fuels\u2019<\/p>\n

Clean-energy and labor groups urged lawmakers not to stall the transition, arguing the systems are needed to retire power plants that pump pollution into vulnerable neighborhoods.<\/p>\n

Pete Sikora, climate and inequality campaigns director for New York Communities for Change, said opponents at Tuesday\u2019s hearing were \u201cfear-mongering\u201d the risks of energy storage and ignoring the dangers posed by existing fossil-fuel infrastructure.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sikora said the issue was personal for his organization\u2019s members, who struggle with high energy costs, pollution-related illness, and the effects of climate change.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis issue is serious to our members, because we pay high bills. People are getting sick from asthma and other health-related illnesses. Climate crisis is a very serious threat, as we saw in Sandy, and our members need good jobs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He argued that BESS could help lower costs and improve reliability.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cSo BESS provides those things. It shifts energy to another time you can store it. That means you can save money on utility bills \u2014 very valuable stuff \u2014 and fear-mongering against it shouldn\u2019t be acceptable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Sikora insisted that the systems are safe and compared them to everyday technologies.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not a dangerous device,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are millions of these things in all our pockets. EVs are not dangerous \u2014 this is not a dangerous technology.\u201d<\/p>\n

Environmental advocates echoed that the city\u2019s standards are already the strongest in the nation. \u201cConcerns about fire safety are certainly understandable,\u201d said Alia Soomro of the New York League of Conservation Voters. \u201cBut FDNY leads the nation in fire prevention and safety protocols.\u201d<\/p>\n

Labor leaders also warned that slowing deployment would mean lost work. \u201cBatteries help meet our climate goals, but they also can create good union jobs with family-sustaining wages, health and retirement benefits,\u201d said Josh Kellerman of Climate Jobs New York.<\/p>\n

Thomas McGuire of IBEW Local 3 said his members have the training needed to install and maintain the technology safely. \u201cWhen installed correctly by power professionals with appropriate rules and regulations,\u201d he said, \u201cthe future can and will be brighter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Playing with fire\u00a0<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the residents who are seeing the \u2018battery farms\u2019 pop up in their neighborhoods testified Tuesday that they feel like unwilling experiment subjects in a technology they believe has not yet proven long-term safety.<\/p>\n

Queens woman Jasmin Lawrence lives on 180th Street and Linden Boulevard in St. Albans, where company NineDot Energy is proposing a BESS\u00a0 \u201cimmediately adjacent\u201d to her home.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey say that these battery farms are safe, but safe for how long?\u201d she told the committee. \u201cThere is no evidence that these lithium-ion battery farms will be safe one, five, 10, or 20 years from now\u2026 This proposed battery farm would be 10 feet from our house.\u201d<\/p>\n

She noted that her family is now in a legal fight with the clean energy firm founded in 2015 and based at the NYU Urban Future Lab at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering in Downtown Brooklyn. The legal battle began when NineDot Energy sued to gain access to their property for the development of the site.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jasmin and her husband countersued alongside the Addisleigh Park Civic Association. A hearing is expected in Queens County Supreme Court next month.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do you lay your head down to sleep in peace,\u201d she asked, \u201cwhen your child\u2019s bedroom is 10 feet away\u201d from a potential hazard?\n<\/p>\n

Locals have joined the Lawrence family in protesting against the plant every week. <\/a>Last week, the developer behind a proposed Staten Island e-battery storage site<\/a> pulled the plug after sustained community protest.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Another resident, Andrea Scarborough, a board member of the Southeast Queens Residential Environmental Justice Coalition, urged the council to pass a resolution asking the New York State Legislature and governor to approve A.6955-A\/S.7197,<\/a> which aims to ensure battery energy storage systems are placed a suitable distance away from nearby properties.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlacement of these facilities near our homes benefits developers, not residents,\u201d she said.\n<\/p>\n

Her husband, William Scarborough, president of the Addisleigh Park Civic Organization and a former state assembly member, echoed that concern.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not saying don\u2019t build them,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re just saying don\u2019t put them right up on our homes\u2026 Neither the FDNY nor developers can guarantee that these facilities will not catch fire.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scarborough said the city\u2019s current zoning policies allow such projects \u201cwithout any public review\u201d and urged the Council to change that process.\n<\/p>\n

Council Member Ariola thanked the residents and said their testimony underscored her point that battery energy storage systems \u201cdo not belong in residential areas.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is about developers,\u201d she said. \u201cThis is about money\u2026 You are the people who need to be heard.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Speaking to amNewYork after the hearing, Council Member Ariola said she felt city officials failed to provide clear answers about the health and safety impacts of lithium-ion battery storage sites during, and vowed to push legislation requiring a 1,000-foot buffer between those facilities and nearby homes, schools, or churches.<\/p>\n

\"\"Ariola stressed that residents \u2018do not feel safe\u2019 with lithium battery storage units placed in residential areas and calling the city\u2019s approach a matter of \u2018developers looking to make a buck.\u2019Photo by Gerardo Romo \/ NYC Council Media Unit.<\/p>\n

The council member said she left the hearing without any new information that could ease residents\u2019 fears.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did not learn anything that I could bring to my communities to allay their fears about these battery storage units,\u201d she said. \u201cNor was I given any reason from the administration why they\u2019re arbitrarily placing them in residential communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fire department always does their job, and it is their intention to make sure that those battery energy storage centers are safe,\u201d Ariola said. \u201cHowever, they had to admit that these are fires that cannot be put out \u2014 they\u2019re fires that have to burn out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ariola said that means potentially harmful emissions could escape into the air during a fire, and that the city had no data on what those emissions might contain.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI was very upset with the Mayor\u2019s Office of Climate and Environmental Justice because they didn\u2019t have any answers at all,\u201d she said. \u201cThey didn\u2019t have any studies at all, and they didn\u2019t have any interest at all in finding out how it could negatively impact the air quality when these BESS are in residential areas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ariola, who co-sponsored the setback resolution with Holden, said she expects movement on the measure by early next year.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are not good neighbors,\u201d she said. \u201cThese are developers looking to make a buck.\u201d\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

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