Family mourn Bronx man killed in latest fire blamed on lithium-ion battery

The latest victim in a troubling trend of city fires sparked by lithium-ion batteries had no escape when his e-bike charging near the front door to his Bronx apartment erupted, trapping him inside, causing him deadly wounds and injuring 13 others.

Hiram Echevarria, 39, was at home inside a high-rise at the Bronx River Houses on Bronx River Ave. near the Cross Bronx Expressway in Soundview when the bike exploded around 7 p.m. on Dec. 3, officials said.

“We’re all just so shocked,” said Migdalia Torres, who shared three children with Echevarria. “It’s really hard. He was very caring.”

A neighbor across the hall on the 10th floor heard a “loud explosion” when the charging battery burst into flames.

“I seen the flames under his door so I just ran, and I told my mom that the flames were coming out of [Echevarria’s] door,” said Yelitza Mercedes, 25. “I went to get my dog and cat, and the smoke filled the hallway so quickly. In less than a minute.”

The neighbor felt the doorknob leading into Echevarria’s apartment, but it was too hot to open.

“But I didn’t hear any screams or nothing so we just made a run for it,” said Mercedes. “It’s traumatizing. I’m still suffering from it today.”

Firefighters responding to the devastating blaze found the man critically injured in a bathroom in the apartment.

“He didn’t burn,” said Torres, 47. “He died from smoke inhalation. It was mostly the smoke.”

Echevarria was rushed to Jacobi Medical Center, where he died that night.

Last year, as the city attributed more and more fires to e-bikes and lithium ion batteries, the New York City Housing Authority banned residents and their guests from keeping or charging the devices or the dangerous batteries in apartments and common spaces.

“That’s the part that is hurtful because it’s just an unfortunate matter,” said Torres. “I think what’s [going to] hurt is when people say, like, he knew he wasn’t supposed to have it in the house. It was upsetting.”

A neighbor in the Bronx River Houses questioned where residents should store the devices, if not inside their homes.

“People bring all types of bikes and scooters and equipment, but it shouldn’t be there,” said Christine Cruz. “But theres not a lot of places out here that they can take it to that helps support us, so they have no choice but to take it inside.”

“But I guess we all just do what we wanna do still,” she added. “[It’s] too bad a life had to be taken because of this.”

As the pandemic swept across the city in 2020, Echevarria bought the e-bike that three years later would kill him.

“He’s charged it before tons of times and had no issue,” said Torres. “He was into welding, engineering. He fixed tons of other things for years so we didn’t expect this.”

“I haven’t really sat with it,” she added.

The couple had a 3-year-old boy, 9-year-old girl and teen boy together.

“If I could pick one of his best features, [it would be] he was a very active father,” said Torres. “We separated — that’s why he was living over there — but even then it was daily check-ins.”

Echevarria was an artist and made toys, figurines and glasses by hand that he often gave away or wore himself. On Sunday, Torres showed off some of his work to a Daily News reporter, noting many pieces were lost in the fire.

“If his art is lingered around, he’s sort of living forever for me,” she remarked.

In the wake of the sudden death, Torres launched a fundraiser to help her with the expenses of raising three children.

“That was my way of sort of adding to it because everybody was not prepared,” she said. “He helped me a lot.”

Echevarria, who was born in Puerto Rico and raised in the Bronx, had a seasonal maintenance job in city parks.

“He was known to ride on the scooter from park to park,” said Torres. “He was definitely a part of the community.”

The raging inferno took 78 firefighters from 20 different units to get under control and destroyed three apartments, officials and neighbors said.

As of Nov. 20, the city Fire Department had recorded 243 fires, 124 injuries and 17 deaths this year related to highly flammable lithium-ion batteries, The News previously reported.

In light of the uptick in fires blamed on lithium-ion batteries, recently proposed legislation in Albany would mandate shop owners selling e-bikes ramp up fire safety precautions.

“I think that’s perfect because so many lives have been lost already,” Yelitza Mercedes said. “I’ve heard also that people just end up buying the batteries that don’t belong with the manufacturer or cheaper batteries, and that’s why they end up exploding. So more regulations would be better.”

Last month, three generations of a Brooklyn family died in a blaze sparked by a faulty lithium-ion battery.

Albertha West, 81, her son Michael West, 58, and her grandson Jamiyl West, 33, all died when the fast-moving fire tore through their Crown Heights home on Nov. 18.

FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh warned in November that the city was on track to surpass 100 fire deaths this year, in what she said is “an extraordinary number not seen in decades.”

In 2003, there were 125 fire-related deaths, according to officials. There were 104 in 2005 and 95 in 2007. Since then, the highest number of deaths came in 2018, when 88 people were killed in fires.

“This number is staggering and is devastating, and it underlies a problem that we have been sounding an alarm on for some time,” Kavanagh said at a news conference.

With Thomas Tracy