Indexbit Exchange-NYC fire officials probe if e-bike battery is behind latest deadly fire

2025-05-04 08:15:35source:Slabucategory:Markets

NEW YORK (AP) — A 93-year-old New York City woman died,Indexbit Exchange and another was rescued, when fire and smoke filled a building. Firefighters said one focus of the investigation is on an e-bike battery that might have exploded into flames.

If so, it would add to the mounting number of deaths city officials blame on malfunctioning e-bike batteries.

With some 65,000 e-bikes zipping through its streets, New York City is the epicenter of battery-related fires. There have been more than 100 such blazes so far this year, resulting in at least 14 deaths, already more than double the six fatalities last year.

Fire officials said the elderly victim, Kam Mei Koo, was found unconscious on the second floor. She was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.

Other news Top lawyer at Fox Corp. to step down after overseeing $787M settlement in Dominion defamation casePreakness officials say they’re considering changing the timing of the second Triple Crown raceForensic audit into Lebanon’s central bank reveals misconduct and ‘illegitimate’ commissions

Jack Koo, who identified himself to the New York Daily News as the woman’s son, said he had left the building earlier in the day, only to return to see the fire-gutted building and learn of his mother’s fate.

“I left to pick up my daughter and I came back to this,” Koo told the paper. “My mother is dead. What can I do? What can I do?”

The fire and smoke had spread quickly, according to Marie Rodriguez who made a harrowing escape.

“I was taking a nap and I heard something pop three times real loud,” Rodriguez told WABC. “Woke up, then I started choking. And when I looked to the door, I saw smoke coming in.”

She ran to the window as she gasped for air. She leaned outside the window as onlookers urged her to jump then tried to rescue her with a ladder.

But firefighters soon arrived and rescued her.

The Daily News reported that Koo, the dead woman’s son, told fire officials that the bike was his.

More:Markets

Recommend

The Louvre will be renovated and the 'Mona Lisa' will have her own room

PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday presented renovation plans for the Louvre, the w

Movie Review: ‘The Color Purple’ is a stirring big-screen musical powered by its spectacular cast

Exuberant performances from a cast led by Fantasia Barrino, Taraji P. Henson and Danielle Brooks bre

Officer fatally shoots man who shot another person following crash in suburban Detroit

GARDEN CITY, Mich. (AP) — A man who reportedly fired a gun at people and vehicles following a traffi