A fire broke out in a garbage truck at Grand Avenue and North Street in University Heights on Saturday morning, April 15, 2023. Video courtesy of Lois Chadwick

A fire broke out in a garbage truck in University Heights on Saturday morning, FDNY officials said. The fire department was alerted to the incident at Grand Avenue and North Street at 8.45 a.m., an FDNY spokesperson said.

 

The fire was caused by a lithium-ion battery inside the garbage truck, the spokesperson said.

 

The fire, categorized as a hazmat incident, was extinguished and handled by units on scene and that there were no injuries, the spokesperson added.

A fire broke out in a garbage truck at Grand Avenue and North Street in University Heights on Saturday morning, April 15, 2023. Video courtesy of Lois Chadwick

Tania Lopez from Brooklyn, who witnessed the incident that morning, later told Norwood News, “A truck came down the block, smoking in the back. It was an e-battery that was sparked up when they closed it in.”

 

Lopez said the driver of the truck did not appear to notice the truck was on fire until he was alerted by residents. “We started telling them to get out of the truck,” she said. Lopez added that a lot of authorities came to investigate the incident in addition to the FDNY. “They were there for a while trying to put the fire out,” she said.

 

Norwood News asked the FDNY for corroboration of this account of what happened and will update this story upon receipt of a response.

A fire broke out in a garbage truck at Grand Avenue and North Street in University Heights on Saturday morning, April 15, 2023. Video courtesy of Lois Chadwick

Another local resident, Lois Chadwick, said she helped put out the fire and filmed the aftermath. “They jumped out the truck and they noticed it was on fire,” Chadwick said, adding, “He was going to drive off. I was like, ‘Nah, you gotta get out. You can’t drive it like that… and you heard it pop! You heard the battery pop…like somebody put an e-bike battery inside the thing and when he went to close it, it caught on fire.”

 

Referring to the driver, Lois said, “He was trying to push the battery down…. so the battery had caught on fire.” She said once the fire was extinguished, the remaining garbage was unloaded onto the street across the whole intersection, which she said was blocked off for a while.

 

Chadwick said the trash had to be reloaded into barrels which she understood were later collected by DSNY. Lopez said they emptied the garbage out onto the street in order to see what had caused the fire. “There was sand. They had to but dirt and sand on the fire, on the remains,” Lopez added. “They can’t just bag that garbage up.”

 

The FDNY urges New Yorkers to follow these lithium-ion safety tips to ensure the safety of you, your family, and our first responders. Make sure these devices do not block exits, do not leave devices unattended while charging, and do not tamper with these batteries. pic.twitter.com/qilKwDZFUp

— FDNY (@FDNY) March 15, 2023

 

Dust and residue from the trash could still be seen on the street later that day. Lopez estimated the fire and clean-up took about two hours. As she re-watched the video of the incident filmed by Chadwick reflected, “Yeah, I was emptying out the garbage and the truck was smoking.”

 

As reported, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) recently recalled 7,250 units of Chinese-manufactured RELiON InSight Series® lithium batteries, due to “thermal burn and fire hazards,” on March 2. Meanwhile, CPSC and Jetson Electric Bikes LLC of Brooklyn announced the recall of about 53,000 42-volt, Jetson Rogue, self-balancing scooters/hoverboards on March 30 due to a fire hazard and two deaths. According to CPSC and Jetson, the lithium-ion battery packs in the self-balancing scooters/hoverboards can overheat, posing a fire hazard.

As also reported, the number of fires caused by lithium-ion batteries has increased in recent years and as a result, the City has taken more measures recently to better regulate their usage, particularly as they pertain to the storage of e-bikes.

 

A 5-alarm supermarket fire which broke out on Sunday, March 5, in the Fordham Heights section of The Bronx injured a total of seven people, two of whom incurred serious injuries.

 

Another person died in an Allerton fire on March 18, 2023, as reported. Fire department officials later wrote, “Per #FDNY Fire Marshals, today’s fatal ‘all hands’ fire which killed one person at 2265 Olinville Avenue in The Bronx was accidental.” They added that the blaze had been caused by a lithium-ion battery.

On Jan. 9, 2022, as reported, a 4-alarm fire which broke out at 2230 Grand Concourse in Fordham Heights, the same day as the Twin Parks fire, was also caused by a lithium-ion battery.

 

As also reported, FDNY officials said a separate fire broke out at 2728 Morris Avenue in Fordham Manor in a five-story, residential building on March 1 and resulted in the hospitalization of five people, including two firefighters, with minor injuries.

 

A container almost filled with sand and with an FDNY sticker on it was seen at the junction of North Street and Grand Avenue in University Heights on Saturday afternoon. Norwood News has asked the FDNY if the container contains the lithium-ion battery which started a fire in a garbage truck at the location earlier that day.

Norwood News readers recently weighed in with their thoughts on the use of such batteries.

 

As reported, a fire broke out in University Heights on Dec. 8, 2022 at Fordham Hill Co-op, another fire was reported also in University Heights on Feb. 7 this year and yet another fire was reported in University Heights on Feb. 23.

 

Asked if she saw an e-bike in the trash, Lopez said, “It wasn’t an e-bike. It was an actual battery.” She added, “They need to recall them, stop selling them and stuff.”

In other fire related news, we also reported on Saturday how a driver in Mount Hope attempted to cover fire hydrant with a traffic cone in order to secure a parking space.

 

Meanwhile, we also contacted NYC Department of Sanitation (DSNY) for comment on the garbage truck fire. Vincent Gragnani, DSNY press secretary replied, saying, “Thankfully, FDNY was able to extinguish the fire and cleared the truck. Additionally, we cleaned up the area and the workers continued on their route.”

He added, “While there were no injuries or damage this time, we’d remind all residents that hazardous items require proper disposal, for the safety and well-being of our workers, firefighters, passersby and residents, and the environment. This is a crucial moral and legal responsibility we all share.”

 

New laws have been introduced at a federal, City and State level to address fire safety prevention and the hazards of lithium-ion batteries and e-bikes.

 

Click here for details of a federal recall of 53,000 scooters due to a fire hazard involving the deaths of two children.