Six people were left injured after a three-alarm fire caused by a lithium-ion battery set a building in the Bronx’s Highbridge section ablaze just before 7 p.m. on Jan. 2.
FDNY personnel battled an intense fire at 920 Summit Ave. that resulted in two residents with minor injuries and four firefighters with minor injuries. Paramedics transported the six to NYC Health + Hospitals/Lincoln.
FDNY personnel arrived to the scene in Highbridge and found a heavy fire throughout a three-story, wood frame dwelling. Due to the intense battle, fire units were briefly withdrawn from the building and a tower ladder was put into operation to knock down the main body of blaze. A short time later, 138 firefighters from 33 units re-entered the building and used four hose lines to extinguish the rest of the blaze.
Lithium-ion batteries, which power most e-bikes and e-scooters, have been the culprit of many major fires in the Bronx since micromobility devices have soared in popularity in recent years. Last month, a fire at a New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) building in Soundview killed a 39-year-old man — the 18th confirmed person to die in an e-battery blaze from January 2023 to early December 2023.
A building resident next door who did not provide their name said they could see the blaze from their window.
“My window faced where the fire was coming from it, I couldn’t breathe for a little bit so then I decided to get out,” the tenant said.
Carlos Lopez, another resident of the building on Summit Avenue, described the brilliance of the flames.
“The smoke filled the sky and the flames were bright orange,” Lopez said. “I was hoping it wouldn’t extend to our building. The firefighters did a great job.”
The blaze was marked under control at 8:40 p.m. FDNY Fire Marshals still hadn’t determined the origin or cause of the fire by Jan. 3.
Blazes in that area of the West Bronx, along Summit Avenue in particular, have been notoriously difficult to manage because of the major traffic issues the FDNY has reported.
Back in March of last year, a double fire (started, put out, then started and put out again) at 913 Summit Ave. — which lies on the same block as the Jan. 2 blaze — took firefighters more than an hour to extinguish the first time, largely because they couldn’t get their trucks to the site because of the dense traffic along the neighborhood’s narrow streets.
Highbridge resident Agnes Johnson, who spoke to the Bronx Times about that double fire back in March, said fire truck sirens illuminated Ogden Avenue where she was stuck in a cab in bumper-to-bumper traffic. She claimed it took an hour to inch along Ogden Avenue from 161st Street to 167th Street.
Oren Barzilay, the president of the FDNY’s Local 2507, told the Bronx Times in an email last March that a few of his field representatives have dealt with congested traffic while responding to jobs in the Summit Avenue area.
“We run into problems responding to jobs every night,” Barzilay said after the double fire last year. “It significantly impacts response times. But the West Bronx … is an absolute s—show.”
This story was updated at 12:30 p.m. on Jan. 4.
Reach Camille Botello at cbotello@schnepsmedia.com or (718) 260-2535. For more coverage, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @bronxtimes
