EXPLAINER: Bikes, batteries and blazes spark concern in NYC

By JENNIFER PELTZ
Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — A weekend fire that injured over three dozen people and spurred a dramatic high-rise rope rescue is drawing attention to battery fire risks that can arise in the electric bikes and scooters that have proliferated in New York City. City officials are considering new laws after the fire department counted nearly 200 blazes and six fire deaths this year tied to problems with lithium-ion batteries in such “micromobility” devices. Industry group leader James Greenberger says there’s nothing inherently unsafe about the batteries. But he said the industry is concerned about the fires lately in New York. Lithium-ion batteries are a Nobel Prize-winning innovation that entered the commercial market in the early 1990s.