NEW YORK — Four Chinatown residents died early Tuesday after a raging e-bike fire tore through a repair shop previously flagged for unsafe conditions, with scores of terrified survivors fleeing into the darkness outside their homes.
Two senior citizen victims were clinging to life in critical condition after the blaze erupted around 12:15 a.m. inside the HQ E-Bike Repair, a shop on the ground floor of the six-story residence on Madison St. near Catherine St., the FDNY said.
It was the second fire blamed on a battery at the location in about nine months, officials and a witness said.
