NYC scooter shop busted making ‘Frankenstein’ batteries often blamed in fires — but owner claims everything came from China
A Queens scooter shop was busted for illegally making highly-flammable “Frankenstein batteries,” fire officials said — but the owner insisted he got “everything from China.”
Invstigators confiscated about 60 battery packs, hundreds of individual lithium-ion cells, 25 e-scooters, and 25 combination electric and gas mopeds from Wilson Scooters in Forest Hills, the FDNY said Thursday.
The Lithium-Ion Task Force – which is composed of the Fire Marshals, Bureau of Fire Prevention, and the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection – inspected the shop after communities members tipped off police and put the shop on its radar.
“We have stressed time and time again that unregulated, tampered with, and non-certified batteries are extremely dangerous,” fire Commissioner Laura Kavanagh said at a news conference Thursday.
“They kill people, they have killed people, and they will kill more people if businesses continue to operate in this manner,” Kavanagh said. “These are what we have called Frankenstein batteries and we have been warning people not to use these for months.”
Kavanagh said the shop was found “building battery packs from individual lithium-ion battery cells and replacing old ones,” which violate the fire code.
But store owner Wilson Chang, who opened his store two years ago, insisted to The Post that he did nothing wrong.
“What they are saying is not true,” he said. “Nobody makes batteries in here. We have a battery factory in China. We get everything from China.
“I don’t make batteries,” Chang went on. “Everything is expensive here. The batteries in China are cheaper so you buy in China. They are good batteries. They are Panasonic.”
Chang also insisted that American scooter batteries are “cheap” and “not good quality” and he blamed the fire department and police for not “teaching people how to to install the batteries in the scooters.”
“They go to YouTube and see how to operate them so they can go faster than 20 miles,” Chang said. “There are no teachers. In New York City scooters should go 20mph. They are crazy. I see 90% of scooters going faster.”
He said he claimed he is seeking a safety certification from Underwriter Laboratories – but he said it’s “not easy.”
Chang was issued several violations, including for storing more than five batteries, storing altered and repaired batteries, having fire extinguishers that were not tagged, electrical hazards, and storing gasoline and diesel fuel, among others.
Kavanagh said the second anyone “tampers” with an lithium-ion battery, the product becomes “unstable and potentially explosive device.”
“Right now, people have explosive devices sitting in their homes,” she lamented.
The fire commissioner connected the dangers of lithium-ion batteries to a fire in Sunset Park, Brooklyn that took place early Thursday morning in a two-story private dwelling.
The fire started in the basement after a lithium-ion battery went up in flames, leaving emergency personnel to fight the blaze for more than an hour, officials said.
Two firefighters suffered minor injuries and were taken to the hospital.
The city has seen a rash of lithium-ion battery fires, including one in November that killed three members of a Brooklyn family.
The battery caused a “wall of fire” that made it extremely difficult for the family to escape their Crown Heights home, officials said at the time.
