Boy, 7, and 19-year-old sister killed in e-bike battery fire in NYC apartment; neighbor recounts grim choice on who to save

A 7-year-old boy and his 19-year-old sister died Monday afternoon in Astoria, Queens, after they were trapped in their second-floor apartment when an e-bike battery burst into flame, blocking the only exit from their residence, according to the FDNY.

The children’s father, Salah Ahmed Alyafi, and their four siblings escaped the blaze by leaping from the back windows after a lithium-ion battery set to charge in the vestibule of the home on 46th St. near 28th Ave. ignited just after 2 p.m., according to fire officials.

Ahmed Zakiniaeiz, who lives across the street, rushed over to the family’s home when he heard the 19-year-old’s cries for help.

The neighbor, who is 6-foot-4 inches, stood on a pillar outside the windows and stretched his frame, trying to reach the family as black smoke poured out of the home.

He saw the boy and the young woman at the window on the left side of the building trying to break through the window guards, which are mandated by city law for child safety.

“I told her, ‘Break it. Break it! Just break it.’ She broke it, but it was kind of hinge-y, so it didn’t really come off,” Zakiniaeiz said.

Before he could try to help, another child appeared in a different window, forcing him to make a grim choice.

“She was talking to me for a little bit and then I see the other kid in the other window. He was screaming for help so I was like, ‘I can save that kid.’”

Zakiniaeiz caught the other boy, who leapt from a window without guards on the right side of the building, but the other siblings at the front of the building were unable to escape.

When he returned his attention to the 19-year-old, it was too late.

“I’m still waiting on them to see if they can jump, but she just stopped talking,” he said. “I figured either the floor fell and they fell or something happened. They stopped being at the window, but she was all black and you could see that the smoke was insane in that room.”

The brother that he rescued begged him to save his siblings, but when the voices inside stopped, the boy seemed to know that they had succumbed to the fire.

“When that kid jumped, he was like, ‘My brother! My brother! My brother!’” Zakiniaeiz said. “He already knew. He was crying on the floor. He already knew.”

Neighbor Teddy Alafogiannis, 34, also heard cries for help and rushed to aid the devout Muslim family.

“I was in my living room and I heard someone screaming and I heard, ‘Help, my house! Help, my house!’” said Alafogiannis.

He said that the father and one of his sons were at the back windows trying to escape the heavy smoke.

“I came outside, my two neighbors already outside. So we got to find a ladder to get these people out the back windows,” Alafogiannis recounted. “We couldn’t find a ladder so we just told him to jump. We caught them.”

The father, twin boys and a 7-year-old girl were rescued, according to Abdul Mubarez, president of the Yemeni American Merchants Association. The girl’s twin brother and the oldest daughter died in the fire. The mother of the children was not at home when the blaze broke out.

“They were getting to break the fast [for Ramadan],” family friend Saddam Mubarez said. “It’s really, really sad.”

It took just three minutes for the Fire Department to arrive, but by that time, it was too late.

“The cause of the fire was an e-bike. It created a heavy smoke condition at the first-floor level that was able to travel directly up the stairs,” FDNY Chief John Hodges told reporters.

“If this was not an e-bike fire, we would have been able to put this fire out without incident, but the way that these e-bike fires occur, it’s like an explosion of fire and these occupants had very little chance of escaping.”

It took 25 units with 106 firefighters about an hour to bring the fire under control around 3:15 p.m., according to the FDNY.

This is the 59th fire in the five boroughs caused by lithium-ion batteries that have suddenly ignited, according to Chief Fire Marshal Dan Flynn. The children account for the city’s fourth and fifth fatalities for the year caused by lithium-ion batteries catching fire. Last year, there were six deaths from 220 such fires in total.

“We want people to use them, but we want them to use them safely,” Flynn said, adding that officials believe that the charger being used was not compatible with the battery.

The father works in the Diamond District and is an inventor, Mubarez said. He has a patent pending for a razor to use in prison that could not be turned into a weapon.

The dad is a “hardworking man trying to make a living and raise his family in this great city,” Mubarez said.

The FDNY commissioner has sounded the alarm that lithium-ion batteries can be dangerous, especially when they are tampered with or used with after-market chargers.

“The horrific fire that resulted in the death of two young people Monday afternoon is a stark reminder of the importance of an issue the FDNY has been talking about for some time: education and awareness around lithium-ion batteries,” FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh said in a statement.

“We are imploring users to follow all manufacturer safety guidelines and recommendations,” she added.

“We are also calling on our federal, state and local partners to move quickly on regulations that will help ensure tragedies like today’s fire are prevented. We are heartbroken for the family of these victims.”

Fire Marshals are still investigating the blaze.