Four people killed, three critical in fire in Manhattan e-bike shop building

Four people were killed and three were left clinging to life when a fire started in an e-bike repair shop in Manahttan’s Chinatown and tore through the apartments above it, authorities said.

The fire erupted about 12:14 a.m. midnight in the six-story apartment building with HQ E-Bike Repair on the ground floor on Madison St. near Catherine St.

The FDNY said in a tweet that firefighters “found heavy fire” in the ground-floor shop.

Two women and two men were killed and two women were hospitalized in critical condition. A seventh victim was also critically hurt. All the victims are believed to be older adults.

One firefighter suffered minor injuries.

Scores of residents above the repair shop escaped or were rescued.

The cause of the fire was not immediately clear. A pile of smoldering e-bikes lay in the street behind police tape as authorities investigated the blaze.

Fires caused by e-bike batteries are a major issue in the city, with seven people killed this year prior to Tuesday’s blaze.

Last month, a 94-year-old woman and her son died from injuries suffered in a fast-moving e-bike fire in the family’s Washington Heights apartment.

The deaths of Bertha Domenech Santiago and her son, Luis, marked the sixth and seventh fatalities caused by the ignition of lithium-ion batteries — used for electric bikes, scooters and hoverboards — surpassing the number of fire deaths from 2022, according to the FDNY.