Prayer candles, alongside red and blue balloons, lined the exterior of a Bronx building Thursday where neighbors and friends gathered to mourn a young boy who died in a fire caused by an e-bike battery.<\/p>\n
Zion Maine, whom authorities say is 10- or 11-years-old, died Wednesday after a lithium-ion battery ignited, killing him and injuring four members of his family.<\/p>\n
Friends and neighbors gathered around the entrance to the building, hugging, crying and bringing candles.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis little boy was loved in the community,\u201d said Tayesha Aiken, 41, who has lived in the Patterson Houses, a public housing complex in Mott Haven, for a decade.<\/p>\n
Even people who didn\u2019t know him are \u201ccoming out and showing love for him and his family,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Fire officials said the battery on an e-bike ignited just before 1 a.m. Wednesday in the kitchen of the family\u2019s 11th-floor apartment. The bike was stored near the front door and blocked the family\u2019s exit from the apartment.<\/p>\n
Maine died at a nearby hospital after being rescued, city officials said. Four others remain in critical condition, according to family members: his father, Courtney Maine, 37, Maine\u2019s partner Syida Adams, and two teenage brothers.<\/p>\n
Aiken said she watched firefighters carry the children out of the building last night.<\/p>\n
\u201cPraying and crying is all I\u2019ve been doing,\u201d she said. \u201cI think that\u2019s all we really can do at this point is pray.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carmen Rodr\u00edguez, 50, has lived in the apartment next door for 23 years. She was awake when the fire broke out and went downstairs when she heard the commotion. When she headed back upstairs around 2 a.m., responders were carrying Maine past her.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was very sad news,\u201d she said in Spanish.<\/p>\n
Rodr\u00edguez said she did not know the family, but had heard how loved they were in the building.<\/p>\n
Sheila Patterson, 63, Adams\u2019 mother, said she was watching TV in her room when details emerged on the news about her daughter\u2019s building, then information about the fire breaking out on the 11th floor.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said, \u2018Oh my God, that\u2019s Syida\u2019s floor,\u2019\u201d Patterson said. \u201cNot thinking that it was her apartment, because there\u2019s a couple of apartments on the 11th floor.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pattern said she has spent her last two days moving between the building and the hospital. \u201cI\u2019m not good,\u201d she said. \u201c\u200aI don’t know what’s the next things [that are] gonna happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
She described her daughter and grandson as smart and strong. \u201cThey\u2019re fighting for their lives now,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
There were 401 lithium-ion battery fires in the city this year, up from 292 last year, according to the FDNY. The New York City Housing Authority allows tenants to charge one e-bike inside an apartment, away from exits, while an adult is present and awake.<\/p>\n
Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson said the borough has no regulated site where riders can charge or store e-bike batteries. The city Department of Transportation started a charging pilot elsewhere, and Gibson said she will push for an expansion.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a city and as an administration, we have to do more,\u201d Gibson said.<\/p>\n
At the vigil, the mood was somber, but communal.<\/p>\n
\u201cNobody wanted this to happen, you know?\u201d Aiken said. \u201cNot the father, not the mother, no one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Instead of assigning blame, residents say they remain focused on supporting each other.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re talking, we\u2019re hugging each other,\u201d Aiken said. \u201cEverybody\u2019s making sure each other is good.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prayer candles, alongside red and blue balloons, lined the exterior of a Bronx building Thursday where neighbors and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":387349,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,9,24,63,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-387348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387348","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=387348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387348\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}