Nicholas Williams and Thomas Tracy<\/p>\n
New York Daily News<\/p>\n
(TNS)<\/p>\n
An 18-year-old boy died as a fire sparked by a\u00a0lithium-ion battery<\/a>\u00a0tore through a Brooklyn apartment, FDNY officials said Saturday.<\/p>\n The blaze marked the\u00a0second fatal fire in the city this year<\/a>\u00a0caused by a lithium-ion battery, officials said.<\/p>\n Neighbors said an explosion erupted inside a 12th-floor apartment at\u00a0NYCHA\u2019s Albany Houses<\/a>\u00a0on Troy Ave. near Bergen St. in Crown Heights about 7 p.m. on Friday, officials said.<\/p>\n Medics rushed the teen from the fire apartment to\u00a0Intefaith Medical Center<\/a>, where he later died. His name was not immediately disclosed.<\/p>\n More than 120 firefighters were called to the scene to douse the blaze, which was put out within an hour.<\/p>\n \u201cThe fire was contained in just their apartment. It didn\u2019t spread anywhere else,\u201d a neighbor, who wished not to be named, said. \u201cWe were here when the fire started. We were able to stay inside.\u201d<\/p>\n FDNY Fire Marshals are investigating, but officials believe the fire was sparked by a lithium-ion battery found in the apartment.<\/p>\n The first fatality related to\u00a0a lithium-ion battery fire<\/a>\u00a0this year occurred on June 26 when a 48-year-old Queens man who scrambled out a window to escape a massive blaze sparked by an e-bike battery died, fire officials said.<\/p>\n The fire ignited after a battery charging in the kitchen of a basement apartment at the two-story home on 91st Ave. near 172nd St. in Jamaica exploded about 12:14 a.m., according to\u00a0FDNY First Deputy Commissioner Daniel Flynn<\/a>.<\/p>\n Medics rushed four victims to Nassau County Medical Center, including two with serious injuries.<\/p>\n The victim was in his bedroom when the fire cut off his access to the main entrance, Flynn said.<\/p>\n Residents were able to escape from a rear window, but the victim waited for his family to exit before leaving and sustained serious injuries.<\/p>\n He died in the hospital about two weeks later, fire officials said.<\/p>\n Flynn said the e-bike the battery powered\u00a0had been left outside<\/a>, but the tenant took the battery into the apartment to charge it.<\/p>\n The tenant had left it charging \u201cbetween the front door and (the victim\u2019s bedroom), which precluded the occupants from escaping safely from the home.\u201d<\/p>\n Deaths related to lithium-ion battery fires have steadily decreased in New York City since\u00a0explosions caused by the devices<\/a>\u00a0killed 18 people in 2023. In 2024, six people died because of battery fires, while only one person was killed in a lithium-ion battery fire in 2025.<\/p>\n While fatal fires remain low, Flynn said the number of fires caused by lithium-ion batteries have still increased about 70% this year.<\/p>\n FDNY Chief Fire Marshal Michael Kavanagh noted at a news conference in July that an increasing amount of battery-related fires are happening outdoors, with 137 non-structural fires in 2026 as compared to 48 at this time last year.<\/p>\n \u201cThe biggest change is where we\u2019re seeing these fires happening,\u201d said Kavanagh. \u201cThese non-structural fires are occurring outside of buildings, businesses and homes. That\u2019s driving the overall increase in incidents.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a92026 New York Daily News. Visit\u00a0nydailynews.com<\/a>. Distributed by\u00a0Tribune Content Agency, LLC.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nicholas Williams and Thomas Tracy New York Daily News (TNS) An 18-year-old boy died as a fire sparked…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":333749,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-333748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=333748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333748\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/333749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}