It's the Brian Larrow Show on WNYC. Good morning again everyone. On Sunday a fire in a

NYCHA building in the Soundview section of the Bronx left one man dead and

13 others injured according to the daily news.

The fire department said it believed the cause to be a lithium ion battery in an e bike

near the deceased victim's door.

The FDNY says that so far this year,

lithium ion batteries have been responsible for

253 fires, 133 injuries, and 18 deaths. those numbers were reported by ABC7, and many of these batteries have been e-bike batteries.

New York City Council Member Keith Powers, who represents District 4 in parts of Midtown and the Upper

East Side, joins us now to talk about the worrying trend and one potential

solution. Earlier this year, the Council Member introduced a bill that

enacted a trade-in program

to help the public get rid of faulty e-bike batteries.

City Council approved that bill in September.

Council member Powers, welcome back to WNYC.

Thank you as always.

Thanks for having me.

To start on this particular fire and sound view on Sunday, the FDA and

NY is still investigating, but I wonder based on what you know if you think it represents the latest episode in an epidemic of sorts.

It does seem to be that way and it seems like every single day we're opening up or at least every week we're opening up the newspaper and finding out about another tragedy that's happened in the city and any part of any corner of the city when it comes to the lithium ion batteries

including a fire I had in my district just about a year ago that was a very

heroic rescue thank God by the FD&Y to save people from injuries and death.

...