Neighbors describe rushing to help family escape after e-bike battery sparks deadly fire at Queens home
NEW YORK -- A neighborhood in Queens continues to grieve after a teenager and a child were killed in a fire that was started by an e-bike battery.
Neighbor Steven Cachie Brown described the moment he saw his neighbor, a father of five, surrounded by smoke at a second floor window, calling for heklp to get his kids out of his burning house on 46th Street in Astoria.
"He was just trying to get his to get his son to get air. 'Help me! We're dying! My whole family is here,'" Brown said. "He dropped the kid down. I grabbed him with my right arm, I set him down."
The fire started Monday at 2 p.m. Brown and another man on the block teamed up to rescue the rest of the kids who were at home for spring break.
"The father came down. We held his legs, shimmied him down. The teenager was a little cared. I said if you're scared to jump, there's a tree," neighbor Teddy Alafogiannis said.
Some of the family members trapped inside were able to climb out the back window onto a tree, neighbors said.
"He grabbed on that tree. I tilted it, and he came right down," Alafogiannis said.
"One of the boys across the street caught one of children jumping out the window in the back. He's a hero," said neighbor Bob Madden.
Within minutes, the FDNY arrived, but the fire had already moved too quickly.
"I said, 'Get out of the house!' I was screaming to the top of my lungs. She says, 'I can't, the flames are coming up the stairs.' I said, 'Jump out the window... and with that, her little brother jumped out the window in the next room," neighbor Carolyn Peterson said.
Two siblings, a 19-year-old girl and 7-year-old boy, did not make it out.
"It's breaking my heart," neighbor Ramon Calbo said.
"I always saw the kids. They were always playing outside," Madden said.
The FDANY says the fire was sparked by a lithium-ion e-bike battery being by an after-market charger. It was connected to an extension cord near the front door, so the fire blocked the exit.
"That's the worst place to keep one. If you're going to have one, put it outside," Madden said.
"I think those e-bikes are out of control," Peterson said.
This year alone in New York City, e-bike batteries have caused 59 fires, killing five people. Mayor Eric Adams signed several e-bike safety laws last month, including preventing the sale of batteries and chargers that don't meet safety standards, but there's no telling how many have already been sold.
The FDNY have been actively working on an e-bike safety campaign.
"They need to be proactive," neighbor Danielle Nunez said. "Have to make sure they tell everybody. Some families, they don't know."
Tuesday, a cleanup effort was underway, but neighbors say nothing will ever shake the helpless feeling.
"Every time I close my eyes, I just hear her voice," Peterson said.
Knowing two young lives could not be saved.
For more information from the FDNY on lithium-ion battery safety, CLICK HERE.
