A New York City man is dead and 10 other residents of a Queens home were injured in a blaze that was triggered by a lithium-ion battery late Friday.
The second and third stories of the Elmhurst home were engulfed in flames at around 11 p.m. when firefighters responded to the scene.
The male decedent died from smoke inhalation shortly after arriving at Elmhurst Hospital.
Multiple other residents were brought to area hospitals including Harlem Hospital and NewYork-Presbyterian Queens Hospital.
The FDNY said that four firefighters needed treatment for minor wounds adding that it took responders 90 minutes to extinguish the flames.
Later Saturday morning, the FDNY revealed in a statement that the cause of the deadly blaze was a lithium-ion battery.
“When (lithium-ion batteries) do fail, they fail very unexpectedly and very violently. It's almost like a blowtorch effect,” said FDNY Chief Fire Marshal Daniel Flynn.
