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Lithium-ion battery caused deadly Harlem apartment building fire, FDNY says
NEW YORK — A lithium-ion battery caused a deadly fire at a Harlem apartment building Friday, according to the FDNY.
One person was killed, 17 were injured and dozens of people were displaced.
The raging fire forced dramatic and rare rope rescues.
“People was coming out of the building. The fire at the top. Side, you see the police coming down with the people, people jumping out the window,” neighbor Angie Ratchford said.
“Just what I have on me. My phone, my keys and this guy,” said Akil Jones, a resident who escaped the fire with his father.
Residents at the St. Nicholas Place apartment building were so desperate, many were forced to jump or use the fire escape, like Jones and his 85-year old dad, Emmett, who is a former Marine and retired parole officer.
“Luckily he was there ’cause [otherwise] might be a different story,” Emmett Jones said.
Emmett Jones says he was asleep while his son was cooking, but then the fire alarm went off.
“I didn’t pay no attention to it, but then I smelled the air, and I was like, ‘Maybe we should leave.’ So I went down the hallway to wake him up. When I turned back around, the whole hallway was black,” Akil Jones said. “We just gathered whatever we could, and we went out of the fire escape.”
Fire officials say 18 people were rescued. Twelve were rushed to a local hospital, where one person, identified as 27-year-old Fazil Khan, died. Four victims remain in critical condition. Police sources say two of those victims had to be intubated.
We’re told Khan was a journalist. His employer gave CBS New York the following statement: “We are devastated by the loss of such a great colleague and wonderful person, and our hearts go out to his family. He will be dearly missed in our newsroom.”
A full vacate order has been issued by the Department of Buildings.
The Red Cross is assisting dozens of people with temporary housing at a school nearby.
Saturday, inspectors, firefighters and city officials were back at the building, assessing the damage and investigating.
Firefighters are reminding New Yorkers of the importance of keeping doors closed during fires.
“On the third floor, one of the apartment doors was left open where the fire was. The fire was so intense, if you could imagine, flames coming out that door and blocking off the stairwell,” FDNY Chief of Department John Hodgens said Friday.
An officer was able to go into the Jones family’s fifth-floor apartment Saturday to get medication out, but it’s still unclear when anyone will be allowed back in to get their belongings.
“They’re saying it’s gonna be a while because of the damage,” one person said.
In September, New York City started enforcing e-bike battery certification at retailers, which requires any mobility device using lithium-ion batteries to meet compliance standards before being sold.
Earlier in February, FDNY Chief Fire Marshal Daniel Flynn sounded the alarm on Capitol Hill, urging lawmakers to pass legislation mandating safety standards for lithium-ion battiers.
“But if we in Congress do nothing or do too little, is it fair to say that the crisis will keep getting worse?” Rep. Ritchie Torres said.
“We cannot regulate devices that are coming into the city from surrounding areas,” Flynn said.
“So ultimately, there’s no substitute for federal legislation,” Torres said.
“Yes, we really need that legislation enacted,” Flynn said.
According to the FDNY, in 2023, lithium-ion batteries caused 267 fires, 150 injuries and 18 deaths in the city. They say as of Monday, there have been 24 lithium-ion battery fire investigations and eight injuries across the five boroughs so far this year.
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On a trip to New York City earlier this month to appear on “Saturday Night Live” for the first time since 1983, Stevie Nicks said she was scared to death. She said her first reaction when she got the call to appear on “SNL” was, “Absolutely not. Because I was terrified to do it, ’cause it goes out live!”
But she did appear on “SNL,” and her performance of “The Lighthouse” brought down the house.
She says the inspiration for her latest song, a rallying cry for women’s rights, struck a few months after Roe v. Wade was overturned, and it took her less than a day to write the song and record it.
Smith asked, “It takes some courage to step into the waters of the abortion debate. Why take the risk?”
“Because everybody kept saying, ‘Well, somebody has to do something. Somebody has to say something,'” replied Nicks. “And I’m like, ‘Well, I have a platform. I tell a good story. So maybe I should try to do something.’ I was also there. I was, been there, done that.“
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In the late ’70s, Nicks was on top of the world with the legendary band Fleetwood Mac. She’d broken up with her longtime partner and Fleetwood Mac bandmate Lindsey Buckingham, and she was romantically involved with Don Henley of The Eagles when she found out she was pregnant, and decided that, as a touring musician, being a mother was not in the cards.
In 1979 she terminated the pregnancy. “In my younger life, I’d already decided I didn’t want to have somebody have their feelings hurt all the time, and like, ‘When are you comin’ back?’ ‘Well, I don’t know. I’ll be back when I get back,’ you know?” Nicks said. “And not even having any idea how big that Fleetwood Mac was going to get in the future, you know? And this is, like, super personal and weird, so you know … you can edit this out if necessary.”
“I appreciate your sharing this story though,” said Smith.
“Well, and it’s a good story, too. I tell a good story!” Nicks said. “I got pregnant. And it was like, Why? I have an IUD. I am totally protected. I have a great gynecologist. How come this has happened? What the heck?“
“So you took all the precautions?”
“Yes. And I’m like, This can’t be happening. Fleetwood Mac is three years in. And it’s big. And we’re going into our third album. It was like, Oh no, no, no, no, no, no.“
Nicks said it would have “destroyed” Fleetwood Mac if she had had the baby: “Absolutely, because many reasons. I would’ve, like, tried my best to get through, you know, being in the studio every single day expecting a child. But mostly, having a child with Don Henley would not have gone over big in Fleetwood Mac, with Lindsey and me – we had been broken up for two or three years. It would’ve been a nightmare scenario for me to live through.”
Fleetwood Mac was a collection of stars, but Stevie Nicks was front-and-center. She was the one who wrote the band’s only #1 single in the U.S., “Dreams,” a song that is still a hit today on streaming.
But if “Dreams” is about heartache and vulnerability, Nicks’ new song is just the opposite: it’s about fighting for the same reproductive rights that she had.
Smith asked, “There are people who criticize your choice, condemn your choice. Anything you want to say to them?”
“I’d like to know, so are you just the few guys who are making the decisions for us?” Nicks replied.
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She said the choice, ultimately, “was mine. And you know what? If people want to be mad at me, be mad at me. I don’t care. Had I made the other choice, had I gone the other way, I’d have been a great mom. I went this way, and I’ve done great.”
Nicks would go on to new heights as a solo artist, becoming the first woman to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, twice.
Of course Nicks has had her share of heartache as well. The woman she called her musical soulmate, Christine McVie, died in 2022, and Nicks was shattered.
“I wanted to go and step in, sit on her bed, and hold her hand, and sing ‘Touched By An Angel’ to her until I was sure she heard it,” she said. “And I didn’t get to. And I didn’t get to say goodbye to her.”
Nicks now ends her shows with a moving tribute to her best friend. She sings, but can’t bring herself to watch. “We have a really beautiful montage of her and me. I never turn around and look. I can’t, ’cause I’ll start to sob. And if I start to sob, then I won’t be able to finish the song. So, I just don’t look at it.”
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Nicks says that, although McVie is gone, she feels her presence with her all the time. She wears a necklace containing some of McVie’s ashes. “A little bit of her,” Nicks said. “But as important as that is, she’s in my heart,” she said.
Nicks says she really doesn’t care whether her new song, “The Lighthouse,” is a hit or not; she just wants people to listen. “Poets write what they write, and poets should not be censored. Writers should not be censored. This song should not be censored. It should go out into the world and do what it’s gonna do, maybe change some minds. There is a God, and God gave me this talent to sing and write and dance. So, I’m doing my job.”
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Story produced by John D’Amelio. Editor: Steven Tyler.
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