Two devastating lithium-ion battery fires across Brooklyn and the Bronx have left 10 people dead, prompting New York City officials to schedule an emergency oversight hearing for November 20.
The New York City Council will examine fire safety laws, enforcement practices, and public education efforts regarding battery safety and storage, according to an NYC Council post on X.
The alarming increase in residential fires in NYC — particularly involving lithium-ion batteries — is an issue we must address,
said Julie Menin, calling the upcoming hearing a necessary beginning.
The Deadliest Fire of 2026 Hits Sunset Park
The announcement arrived just one day after a fierce blaze ripped through a two-story home on 58th Street near Seventh Avenue in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park neighborhood, claiming six lives. Firefighters pulled a man and a woman in their 50s from the burning building in cardiac arrest, and both later died at NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn.
Yesterday, six New Yorkers lost their lives in a devastating fire in Sunset Park. Last week, four New Yorkers, including an 11-year-old boy, died in a fire in the Bronx. Lithium-ion batteries were found at both scenes. Enough is enough. On November 20, the @NYCCouncil will hold… pic.twitter.com/rNzRxjleTS
Four additional adults were discovered dead inside the heavily burned home after firefighters extinguished the flames. Investigators recovered two lithium-ion batteries from the property, though officials noted it remained unclear whether those batteries sparked the top-floor fire.
The Sunset Park tragedy followed a fatal Bronx explosion just a week earlier. On the 11th floor of the Patterson Houses in Mott Haven, an e-bike battery detonated next to the apartment’s main entryway, trapping a family.
The alarming increase in residential fires in NYC — particularly involving lithium-ion batteries — is an issue we must address. The Council's oversight hearing is an important first step toward doing just that. https://t.co/cVFoYW6kmP
Four Bronx Fatalities Bring City Battery Fire Death Toll to 10
Eleven-year-old Zion Maine died at Jacobi Medical Center on the day of the blast. Three other family members—CJ Maine, 15, Jamaree Adam, 16, and 33-year-old Syida Adam—succumbed to their injuries at hospitals over the following two days. The children’s father, 37-year-old Courtney Maine, remained in a medically induced coma in the burn ICU at Harlem Hospital.
Those four Bronx fatalities brought the city’s lithium-ion battery fire death toll to 10 for the year. Across all causes, 86 people have died in New York City fires this year to date, marking a steep jump from 44 deaths during the same period last year.
Fire department records show a sharp escalation in dangerous incidents since officials began tracking them in 2019, when only 13 blazes were attributed to the batteries. The total reached 44 in 2020 and continued to rise until the number of fires started to fall in 2024. The city recorded 18 victims in 2023, six deaths in 2024, and one fatality in 2025.
By contrast, battery-related fires have surged to 401 this year, up from 292 total blazes in 2025. Injuries from e-bike battery fires have gone up, too, with lithium-ion battery fires having caused 74 fires versus 51 last year.
