Lithium-ion battery fires remain a persistent safety issue in New York City, even as fatalities have fallen from their 2023 peak, according to FDNY data cited in recent local reporting. In Brooklyn, the family of 18-year-old Caleb Matthews said that trend turned deadly on August 28, when an e-bike battery exploded inside their NYCHA apartment in Crown Heights. FDNY confirmed the fire was caused by a lithium-ion battery, and relatives said Matthews was charging the bike before leaving to visit his grandmother.
FDNY confirmed a lithium-ion battery sparked the fatal August 28 fire
The fire broke out around 7 p.m. on August 28 in a 12th-floor apartment at the Albany Houses on Troy Avenue near Bergen Street in Crown Heights, according to reporting by the Mercury News, which cited FDNY confirmation that a lithium-ion battery caused the blaze. Matthews, who had turned 18 on August 7, was rushed to Interfaith Medical Center, where he died, the report said. The fire also killed the family’s dog and two cats.
Relatives said Matthews had been charging his e-bike battery so he could travel to Queens to visit his grandmother. His aunt, identified in the report only as Claudia, said the loss has been devastating for the family. A GoFundMe page created by relatives described the e-bike as part of the independence Matthews had recently begun to experience as a young adult.
The fundraiser said Matthews had recently graduated high school with honors, earned his driver’s license and was planning for college, with a possible interest in engineering. Family members said he had also hoped to buy his first car and had long-term plans that included moving to Florida and eventually to Japan. Those details have not been independently released by city agencies, but they were shared publicly by the family through the fundraiser and in interviews cited by local media.
The fatal fire happened at Albany Houses, a NYCHA development in Brooklyn, and city records identify Albany as a Crown Heights-area public housing campus that includes addresses on Troy Avenue, Albany Avenue and Bergen Street. NYCHA’s online development records list Albany among its Brooklyn properties, and agency property materials show addresses including 180 Troy Avenue and nearby Bergen Street locations. That places the incident squarely within one of the city’s large public housing communities.
What remains unconfirmed publicly is the full investigative record, including the precise model of the e-bike, the battery manufacturer and whether the battery met New York City safety certification requirements. FDNY confirmed the ignition source category, but a full public incident narrative was not available in the source material reviewed for this article. NYCHA also has not publicly released any development-specific enforcement findings tied to this apartment.
NYCHA’s current micromobility rules prohibit tenants from charging more than one e-bike, e-scooter or related battery at a time in an apartment and require that an adult be present and awake during charging. The agency also bars charging near apartment exits or in ways that could block escape, according to NYCHA guidance and a 2024 agency press release outlining lithium-ion battery safety rules.
The broader context is a city still trying to reduce the danger from rechargeable mobility devices inside homes. According to the reporting cited by the Mercury News, lithium-ion battery fires killed 18 people in New York City in 2023, six in 2024 and one in 2025 before Matthews’ death became the second such fatality reported in 2026. The same report said the number of fires caused by lithium-ion batteries was up about 70% this year, even though deaths remained below the levels seen several years ago.
NYCHA and FDNY have both expanded public warnings about battery charging and storage. FDNY has separately warned New Yorkers about the severe fire risk posed by unsafe lithium-ion battery use and home-based battery work, while NYCHA has published detailed tenant rules for charging e-bikes and e-scooters in apartments.
For residents, the immediate takeaway is that city agencies continue to treat indoor battery charging as a high-risk issue, especially in multiunit housing. Matthews’ family said their apartment remains uninhabitable and that his mother, who was visiting relatives in Guyana when the fire happened, returned home early after losing her son, pets and possessions. The investigation findings available so far establish the cause category and the date of the fire, but not every product-level detail surrounding the explosion.