Man killed in East Village fire charging nine e-bike batteries inside his apartment the flames erupted.
The man killed in a raging East Village fire was charging nine e-bike batteries inside his apartment when the flames erupted, with the explosive force of the blaze blowing out the windows and a wall inside the fourth-floor residence, FDNY officials said Friday. The two teens who escaped the 7 a.m. fire were sleeping in their beds when the rubble crashed down on them, with the pair able to shimmy down a pipe to safety after fleeing the flames through one of the shattered windows, said FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro. A police source indicated the multiple lithium ion batteries were charging simultaneously when one exploded, engulfing the apartment in a deadly instant. “These flames, they way the fire took hold of his apartment… That fire was raging,” said Nigro. “We arrived in four minutes, and by the time we were there, this fire was already an advanced fire.
