After a 5-alarm fire ripped through a two-family, wooden home located at 2462 Devoe Terrace in Fordham Manor on Sunday evening, June 22, injuring 15 people, including FDNY and EMS personnel, NYC Mayor Eric Adams, Fire Commissioner Ben Tucker, Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Kaz Daughtry and other FDNY officials gathered for a press conference on Monday afternoon, June 23, outside the ruins of the building to give a further update on the blaze and on the investigation into its cause.

 

As reported, an FDNY spokesperson said the department received a call at 7.24 p.m. on June 22 for a report of a fire at the Devoe Terrace building located between Webb Avenue and West 190th Street.

The spokesperson said the five-alarm fire extended to 2460 and 2464 Devoe Terrace and that 44 units comprising 198 FDNY and EMS personnel responded to the scene. To read our initial story, click here.

 

At the press conference, which was also attended by EMS Division Chief John Evans and the FDNY Bronx Borough Commander Mike Woods, among others, Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Kaz Daughtry said, “Yesterday’s fire is a stark reminder of just how dangerous the jobs our firefighters and EMS have. Several of New York’s Bravest and New York’s Best were injured responding to this emergency.”

 

He added, “Their courage and the commitment are what stands between danger and the safety of the rest of us. We also know the toll it takes on the surrounding communities, not just in terms of injuries and damage, but the the emotional weight of seeing your home or your neighbor’s home consumed by flames.”

 

Daughtry thanked every first responder who he said stepped into harm’s way to protect lives. “Our thoughts are with those impacted by this fire,” he said. “I personally want to wish a speedy recovery to the firefighter that was injured in fighting this fire. I went to see him this morning. He is in good spirits. He’s not intubated anymore. He was up, he was talking. He couldn’t wait to get back to go surfing.” He said the mayor also FaceTimed him and would connect with him again later.

 

For his part, Adams said the fire was a stark reminder of the issues/dangers around lithium-ion batteries. “We communicated this throughout the last few years, and each year we said we have to have a constant reminder of the dangers of these batteries,” he said. “Thank God there was no loss of life.” He reiterated what Daughtry said about a blaze of that size being traumatizing for all concerned.

The mayor said the injury count was now 15 (up from 14), including nine firefighters, four EMS workers and two civilians. He said the City was again looking at every measure possible to remove lithium-ion batteries from the streets, particularly those which were not properly manufactured. “The FDNY responded swiftly and we are fortunate no one was killed during this blaze,” Adams said.

 

“One of our firefighters [..] was critically injured,” he added. “To all the men and women who run towards flames while we all run away, we cannot thank them enough and we’re praying for his full recovery, and we’re praying for all of those who were injured for a full recovery.” Adams said as a “public safety mayor,” which he classified himself as, he reminded all New Yorkers of the dangers of lithium-ion batteries when not properly used, charged or stolen as they can cause explosions.

 

“If you go online, and look at a video of how fast the explosion takes place and how fast the fire can spread, you’ll understand how dangerous it is,” Adams said. “You should not have them in your household. You should not be charging them in your home. You should not have them at your exit or entrance way because it can impede your ability to leave if a fire or explosion starts, and the results have been too many tragic fires, and too many lives have been lost.”

 

The mayor said his administration was doing everything in its power to put a stop to what he said were these deadly fires. “These include enforcement, education, and communicating with our national leaders to put in place the right legislation to address this.” He said they released their “charge safe, ride safe plan” to help New Yorkers use e-bikes and e-scooters safely, and to make it easier for property owners to install public battery charging and swapping cabinets on sidewalks in front of their buildings.”

 

Adams said their efforts had resulted in a 67% drop in lithium-ion fire deaths between 2023 and 2024, but that the work was not done. “Again, I salute those men and women who are protecting 8.5 million New Yorkers who continue to do their job in such a dangerous, dangerous, challenging environment,” he concluded.

For his part, Tucker also thanked his colleagues in government for supporting the FDNY in its efforts to combat lithium-ion battery fires over the years. “The FDNY has been leading the country, if not the world, on bringing awareness to the danger of lithium-ion batteries and last night was no exception,” he said adding that there were zero deaths so far this year due to such fires.

 

“However, last night could have been the first one,” he said. “We had a firefighter critically injured right behind us and that is, to my recollection, the first time a firefighter has been injured in a lithium-ion battery fire. We are very lucky that our hero firefighter is alive today, and I want to thank the fabulous work of our EMTs and rescue paramedics that responded so quickly and administered life-saving care right here on the scene before we removed the firefighter to the hospital.”

 

Tucker said they had an injured EMS lieutenant who got injured while treating the firefighter for smoke inhalation. “This was a complex fire to fight,” he said before handing off to Chief of Fire Operations Kevin Woods.

 

Describing the fire, Woods said they were confronted with a very heavy body of fire which appeared to have started in the front porch area. “The fire extended into the first floor, into the second floor, and also into the attic space,” he said. “This is a very old building; this building is 115 years old. It’s what we call a wood-frame building; everything is wood, including the exterior.”

 

The fire chief said the fire quickly spread to adjacent buildings. “We moved in with multiple hand lines, which we call an aggressive interior firefighting attack. That’s how we operate in the FDNY. We’ve saved many, many lives by the proper positioning of hose lines in buildings. Due to the amount of fire and the structural instability, we had to remove all our members; there were many challenges here.”

Woods added, “Then we went to exterior operations. In addition to the lithium-ion batteries, we had challenges with the overhead wires, the amount of fire, the construction, the voids and, of course, the overall size of the building. Lithium-ion batteries produce flammable gasses. They produce toxic gasses. They ignite very violently and rapidly, but they also produce many toxins. They produce hydrogen cyanide, which is extremely deadly and could be fatal in low concentrations.”

 

The fire chief concluded, “They produce carbon monoxide, which is the most abundant gas in any fire, and then in a few breaths, you can go unconscious and you can die in a few minutes, depending on the concentrations. Lithium-ion battery fires also produce carbon dioxide, which displaces oxygen, and many, many other hazards. I’d like to congratulate our firefighters for preventing this fire from spreading past the point of these three homes. They did a tremendous job, and please keep all of our firefighters In your thoughts and prayers, thank you.”

 

In response to a question, FDNY Chief Fire Marshal Dan Flynn said he encouraged people to keep e-bikes outside. “That’s a first step in safety but, however, they were so close to the exterior of the building, when it did fail, those batteries, those fires, extended through that building, and were able to take off from there.”

 

Flynn continued, “So we want you to store them outside, but store them outside away from combustibles. We don’t want them very close to the building, because that initial fire will extend to the building itself. These were on the porch, were very, very close to building, itself.

 

In response to a question seemingly about whether one of the e-bikes was actually a mobility device, Flynn said some were for mobility issues. “There was a handicapped resident that used this just for mobility, but some were not, so it was a mix,” he said. “There were approximately five lithium-ion powered devices there, two of which were charging. We were able to confirm that at least one of these devices was not UL-certified so that’s a message that we want to put out there that it is actually illegal to sell non UL-certified devices within the city.”

 

UL-certified batteries are batteries that have been evaluated, tested, and certified by UL Solutions (formerly Underwriters Laboratories) to meet specific safety and performance standards. Woods said eight firefighters were injured due to the heat. “The firefighting is physically demanding due to the heat, the debilitating effects (most of them were minor), and due to heat exhaustion,” he said. “One of our firefighters did go to the hospital. He’s still admitted and hopefully he gets out In a couple of days.”

 

As reported, the Setting Consumer Standards for Lithium-Ion Batteries Act advanced in the U.S. House of Representatives in May, as announced by Rep. Ritchie Torres (NY-15) who sponsored the legislation and in New York City, the council passed in February 2024 further legislation relating to e-bike safety, as reported.

 

FDNY officials are reminding drivers not to block fire hydrants to prevent delays connecting fire hoses to hydrants. As reported, two people were killed after a fire engulfed a Buddhist temple on Anthony Avenue in Fordham Heights on Feb. 12, and fire officials said their rescue efforts were hampered by a car parked in front of a fire hydrant across the street from the blaze.

 

To read some of our recent fire-related coverage, click here, here, here, and here,

 

Click here to read FDNY’s fire safety tips. “During a fire, always close the door behind you!” fire officials say. “It helps contain smoke and flames, giving you precious time to escape.”