Two raging fires in Manhattan on Monday night and early Tuesday left one person dead and several other people injured, including seven firefighters.
Officials with the city’s fire department said a blaze tore through a residential building on East 82nd Street and East End Avenue in Yorkville around 7:15 p.m. on Monday, killing one man whose identity was not immediately released.
“We had a heavy body of fire, originally on the fifth and sixth floor,” FDNY Assistant Chief Thomas Currao told reporters at the scene.
The fire then spread to the fourth floor, and firefighters had to pull apart walls and stretch hose lines to the roof to extinguish the flames, Currao said. As the crews worked, they found a man unconscious and unresponsive in a fifth-floor hallway. He was pronounced dead at a local hospital, officials said.
Six firefighters sustained minor injuries, officials said, and residents from up to 10 apartments were displaced due to damage from water and smoke. The Red Cross was helping to relocate the residents, who were sheltering in the lobbies of neighboring buildings. The fire marshal was still investigating the cause of the blaze, according to the FDNY.
Hours later, around 3:15 a.m. on Tuesday, firefighters responded to a fire in an e-bike shop on West 38th Street and Sixth Avenue in Midtown.
A total of 86 firefighters and emergency medical workers responded to and extinguished the blaze, which officials said broke out in a 12-story commercial building. Hazmat units also came to the scene to deal with the lithium-ion batteries from the e-bikes.
One firefighter was taken to a local hospital with minor injuries, the FDNY said. The fire was declared under control by 4:30 a.m., and officials were also investigating its cause.
Citywide, lithium-ion batteries have caused 250 fires so far this year, slightly less than the 254 fires caused by such batteries in the same time period last year, according to fire department data.
Fewer people are being injured and killed in such fires so far this year, the data shows. There have been 94 injuries and five deaths reported in 2024, compared to 133 and 17, respectively, by the same point last year.
This is a developing story and may be updated.