A 76-year-old grandmother was killed when an e-bike battery exploded like a “blowtorch” inside a Queens pizzeria on the Fourth of July – trapping her as she tried to leave the bathroom, the FDNY said.
Yuet Kiu Cheung, 76, was consumed by the flames when the device erupted inside Singas Famous Pizzeria on Kissena Boulevard near Cherry Avenue in Flushing around 3 p.m. on the holiday – marking the city’s first deadly fire attributed to lithium-ion batteries this year, officials said Tuesday.
“These things take off very, very quickly with a blowtorch effect,” Chief Fire Marshal Daniel Flynn told reporters. “This woman was in the bathroom. She went to the bathroom for one minute. She was trapped. She could not get out of the bathroom because the device was stored directly outside the bathroom.”
Cheung — who was shopping with a friend when they decided to stop at the pizzeria — heard “three explosions” and smelled a strange odor as she used the bathroom, her grief-stricken son Tommy Ou Yang told The Daily News.
“It was a weird smell and all of a sudden the black smoke comes out,” he said.
Cheung had to pass the explosive flames on her way out of the restroom toward the exit – but couldn’t get there quite fast enough, according to FDNY Commissioner Robert Tucker.
“For me to find my mom burnt like a roast pig, almost 100 percent of her whole body, is a memory I cannot forget,” Yang told the News.
The senior was rushed to a local hospital, where she succumbed to her extensive injuries the next day, the commissioner said.
“She’s a very loving parent, a loving grandmother,” her son said. “All her grandchildren, they all miss her.”
“The neighborhood, everybody loves her,” he added. “She’s always very friendly with everybody, tries to help everyone.”
The four other people inside the pizzeria at the time of the blaze managed to escape, officials said.
The fire left the eatery in shambles, and the charred bike remained at the scene Tuesday.
“These fires are treacherous,” Tucker said. “They move very quickly. They are very hot. And you know, you don’t have many feet to move before you’re overtaken by the fumes and the smoke and the flames.”
In total last year, six fatal fires were caused by exploding lithium-ion batteries, and more than 20 in 2023, Tucker said.
“One is too many, and I will not stop talking about safety around lithium-ion batteries and e-mobility devices until the number is zero,” the commissioner said.
Meanwhile, Flynn urged users of the devices never to store them inside a home or business, or near an entrance or exit.
“It’s a tremendous tragedy, and the problem persists here,” the fire marshal added. “This is has not gone away.”
