Friends and co-workers are mourning the dying of a New York journalist who died in what government say is town’s newest fatal hearth sparked by means of a micromobility instrument’s lithium-ion battery.
Fazil Khan, an Indian nationwide and knowledge journalist, used to be the lone fatality in a Friday condominium hearth that injured 17 others. He used to be 27 years outdated.
“We are devastated by the loss of such a great colleague and wonderful person,” The Hechinger Report, an schooling news outlet the place Khan labored, stated on X, previously Twitter.
Khan used to be additionally a contributor at The City, any other New York-based news outlet, which stated on X that Khan used to be “a friend to many in our newsroom.”
The blaze, which brought about a number of vital accidents, used to be brought about by means of batteries from a “micromobility device,” New York’s hearth division instructed USA TODAY on Monday.
Khan’s dying is the newest in an uptick of fatalities from fires sparked by means of the batteries, New York hearth officers have warned.
Earlier this month, Fire Commissioner Laura Kavanagh introduced lithium-ion batteries have just lately turn out to be a number one explanation for fires and hearth deaths in New York City, and that the issue is rising national too.
Videos posted by means of FDNY display lithium-ion batteries in condominium lobbies, on streets and in different public puts erupting briefly and fueling rapidly-spreading blazes.
“Make sure any device you have in your home, whether an e-bike or something else powered by a lithium-ion battery is safe and you can guarantee you and your family are safe when you buy something from a store or from an online retailer,” Kavanagh stated at a Feb. 2 public protection briefing.
Why are lithium-ion batteries bad?
Heat and explosions from rechargeable lithium-ion batteries may cause intense, rapidly-spreading fires which can be tricky to extinguish with water, New York’s hearth division warns. Traditional hearth extinguishers present in properties additionally don’t paintings in opposition to lithium-ion battery fires, the department says.
Many electrical motorcycles and scooters offered within the U.S. in recent times would possibly comprise lithium-ion batteries that experience no longer been authorized by means of shopper protection laboratories, and extra rules and laws on e-bike batteries are wanted within the U.S., hearth officers have warned.
“It seems like no mater how much we say that this is a problem we either see that these are still being sold and people need to be held responsible for that,” Kavanagh instructed ABC 7 in New York ultimate yr.
In many instances, customers could also be unaware a mobility instrument − or perhaps a kid’s toy − may probably be very bad, she stated.
“People may not realize that the device they have in their home was sold prior to any of this regulation,” Kavanagh instructed the hole.
How many of us die from lithium-ion battery fires?
There has been a dramatic building up in deaths from fires sparked by means of lithium-ion batteries in New York City, the hearth division says.
As just lately as 2020, there have been 0 deaths from lithium-ion battery fires, according to the department, however the town has noticed a spike since then.
Last yr, 17 other folks in New York died from lithium-ion battery fires, ABC 7 reported, mentioning information from the Fire Safety Research Institute. That quantity is up from six deaths in 2022 and 4 in 2021, Gothamist reported.