{"id":1174761,"date":"2026-11-09T07:01:13","date_gmt":"2026-11-09T07:01:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1174761\/"},"modified":"2026-11-09T07:01:13","modified_gmt":"2026-11-09T07:01:13","slug":"mondays-headlines-theres-a-meeting-for-that-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1174761\/","title":{"rendered":"Monday’s Headlines: There’s a Meeting for That Edition"},"content":{"rendered":"

An increase in lithium-ion battery fires? There\u2019s a meeting for that.<\/p>\n

City Council Speaker Julie Menin loves an oversight hearing, and with the year\u2019s increase in lithium-ion battery fires (first reported by Streetsblog<\/a>) making major, tragic headlines in recent weeks, that\u2019s just what she\u2019s got in store.<\/p>\n

Menin on Friday announced plans for an oversight hearing on Nov. 20 \u201cto examine residential fire safety, following a concerning increase in fatal fires, including battery-related fires, across the city.\u201d<\/p>\n

So far this year FDNY attributes 406 fires to lithium-ion batteries \u2014 which are commonly but not exclusively used in e-bikes \u2014 compared to 241 last year. The largest increase has been in non-structural fires \u2014 meaning blazes that occur outside of a home or business. The Department of Sanitation recorded 87 lithium-ion fires in garbage trucks as of mid-October, a 58 percent increase from 2025.<\/p>\n

The most recent high-profile blaze killed six people in a row house<\/a> in Sunset Park, just days after another fire in the Bronx that filled four. Council Member Susan Zhuang, who was at the scene in Brooklyn, told Streetsblog she planned to \u201clook and see if we can set up some stations so people can just charge outdoors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zhuang may have been referring to the city\u2019s extra-delayed efforts to set up battery charging and swapping cabinets on curbsides and sidewalks, which the Adams administration announced in 2023 and have been stuck in bureaucratic hell ever since. The city has not approved a single application for an outdoor charging cabinet.<\/p>\n

The Times, meanwhile, reported on Friday on an overall increase in fires \u2014 86 this year compared to 44 last year \u2014 but focused its scrutiny on e-bike batteries, which it called \u201ca major driving force behind the rise in fires and fire deaths\u201d despite accounting for just nine of this year\u2019s fatalities.<\/p>\n

Menin will co-lead the hearing with Council Members Pierina Sanchez and Joann Ariola. Ariola, a conservative Republican from Queens, has used her bully pulpit as chair of the Committee on Fire and Emergency Management to push unsubstantiated claims that bike lanes slow emergency response times. Earlier this year, she celebrated the reopening of a park road in her district to cars by obnoxiously joy-riding down the strip while parents and kids held a protest to keep the street car-free. Don\u2019t count on Council Member Joann Ariola to give people who rely on bikes to get around the city a fair hearing.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tRecommended<\/p>\n

\t\t
\n \t\"\u2018Everyone
\n \t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

In other news:<\/p>\n