Electric scooter battery catches fire in New York City, kills 8-year-old girl

An electric scooter battery catches fire in New York City leaving an 8-year-old girl dead; further injures her father and brother with major burns, reports AP.

Since the onset of 2022, electric scooters have been catching fires in various countries around the globe. Many reports claim that electric scooter batteries are catching fire due to excessive heat. However, in yet another incident, an electric scooter caught fire recently in New York City that killed an 8-year-old girl. The death of Stephanie Villa Torres on September 17 was at least the third time in a little over a year that a fatal fire in the city has been linked to a scooter battery. EV fire was reported around 7:30 am at a home in Queens, a police spokesperson stated.

Stephanie was found unresponsive and was pronounced dead at a hospital. The girl's father and 18-year-old brother were treated for burns and smoke inhalation, officials said. A fire department spokesperson said the blaze was caused by a lithium battery from an electric scooter, one of the scores of fires blamed on electric scooter and bike batteries in New York City over the past two years.

A woman and a 5-year-old girl were killed Aug 3 in Harlem by a fire that was blamed on a scooter battery, and a fire linked to an e-scooter killed a 9-year-old boy in Queens in September 2021.

(With inputs from AP)