Transcript: Mayor Adams Assesses Fire Damage in University Heights and Briefs Media

June 23, 2025

Video available at: https://youtu.be/g08bYzvn0K8

Deputy Mayor Kaz Daughtry, Public Safety: Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Kaz Daughtry and I'm the deputy mayor for Public Safety. We are here in the Bronx at the site of a devastating five-alarm fire that occurred yesterday resulting in multiple injuries to both residents and our first responders. 

I'm joined here today by Mayor Eric Adams and the leadership team from the Fire Department, Fire Commissioner Robert Tucker, the Chief of Operations Kevin Woods, Chief Fire Marshal Daniel Flynn, EMS Division Chief John Nevins, and the Bronx Borough Commander Mike Woods. 

Yesterday’s fire is a stark reminder of just how dangerous the jobs of our firefighters and EMS have. Several of our bravest and New York's best were injured responding to this emergency. The courage and the commitment are what stands between danger and the safety of the rest of us. We also know the toll it takes on the surrounding communities, not just in terms of injuries and damage, but the emotional weight of seeing your home or your neighbor's home consumed by flames. 

Before I turn it over to Mayor Adams and the fire commissioner to provide an update on the investigation into this fire and the aftermath, I would like to personally thank every first responder who stepped into harm's way yesterday to protect lives. Our thoughts are with those impacted by this fire. And I, personally, want to wish a speedy recovery to the firefighter that was injured fighting this fire. 
I went to see him this morning. He is in good spirits. He's not intubated anymore. He was up. He was talking. He couldn't wait to get back to go surfing. The mayor happened to call FaceTime the mayor. The mayor got to speak to him also and will be connecting with him later on today. At this time, I'd like to turn it over to Mayor Eric Adams.

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you so much, D.M. Daughtry and Commissioner Tucker and the entire team that's here. This is a stark reminder of the issues around lithium-ion batteries. We communicated this throughout the last few years and each year, we have to have a constant reminder of the dangers of these batteries. 

Thank God there was no loss of life, but I add my voice to Deputy Mayor Daughtry that it is traumatizing, not only for the residents of both houses on the left and right, but for the neighbors on the block. It's traumatizing to see a fire of this magnitude. Last night, here on DeVoe Terrace in the Bronx, we experienced this five-alarm fire, a fire that resulted in 15 injuries, including nine firefighters, four EMS workers, and two civilians. 

Like so many of these serious fires, we continue to see over and over again the role that lithium-ion batteries are showing. This is why we are looking at every measure possible to remove these batteries off our street, particularly those who are not properly manufactured. The FDNY responded swiftly, and we are fortunate that no one was killed during this blaze. 

One of our firefighters, as D.M. Daughtry indicated, was critically injured, and the deputy mayor visited him in the hospital, and I communicated with him this morning. And to all the men and women who run towards flame while we all run away, we cannot thank them enough. And we're praying for his full recovery, and we're praying for all of those who were injured for a full recovery. 

And, as a mayor that believes in public safety and classifies myself as a public safety mayor, I want to remind all New Yorkers the dangers of lithium-ion batteries when not properly used, charged, and stored. They cause explosions, and if you go online and look at a video of how fast the explosion takes place and how fast the fire can spread, you'll understand how dangerous it is. 

You should not have them in your household, you should not be charging them in your home, you should not have them at your exit or entranceway, because it can impede you, your ability to leave if a fire or explosion starts, and the results have been too many tragic fires and too many lives have been lost. And the administration is doing everything in our power to put a stop to these deadly fires. 

And this includes enforcement, education, and communicating with our national leaders to put in place the right legislation to address this. We released our Charge Safe, Ride Safe plan to help New Yorkers use e-bikes and e-scooters safely, and made it easier for property owners to install public battery charging and swapping cabinets on sidewalks in front of their buildings. 

Our efforts, so far, are getting results. With a 67 percent drop in lithium-ion fire deaths between 2023 and 2024. Yesterday's fire was a reminder that the work is not done, there's more to do. And again, I salute those men and women who are protecting 8.5 million New Yorkers and continue to do their job in such a dangerous, challenging environment. To go over the details of the fire, I'm going to turn it over to the FDNY commissioner and his team.

Fire Commissioner Robert Tucker: Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor. I'm Robert Tucker, the New York City fire commissioner. I want to thank the mayor and the deputy mayor for their support, not just last night during this five alarm fire, which Chief Kevin Woods, the chief of Fire Operations, will describe to you, but just for supporting the FDNY in our efforts, like our efforts to combat lithium-ion battery fires. 

For many years now, the FDNY has been leading the country, if not the world, on bringing awareness to the dangers of lithium-ion batteries. And last night was no exception. The mayor talked about a 67 percent decrease in the number of lithium-ion battery deaths. We are at zero this year. However, last night could have been the first one. 

We had a firefighter critically injured right behind us, and that is, in my recollection, the first time a firefighter has been injured in a lithium-ion battery fire. We are very lucky that our hero firefighter is alive today. And I want to thank the fabulous work of our EMTs and rescue paramedics that responded so quickly and administered life-saving care right here on the scene before we removed the firefighter to the hospital. 

We had an injured EMS lieutenant who was injured during the time that he was treating the firefighter with smoke inhalation. This was a complex fire to fight, and to describe it, I would like to turn it over to the Chief of Fire Operations, Kevin Woods.

Chief Kevin Woods, Fire Operations, Fire Department: Hello, everybody. My name is Kevin Woods, the chief of Fire Operations. So last night at about 7:30 [p.m.], upon arrival, we were confronted with a very heavy body of fire in this building. The fire appears to have started on the front porch area. The fire extended into the first floor, into the second floor, and also into the attic space. 

This is a very old building. This building is 115 years old. It's what we call a wood frame building. Everything is wood, including the exterior. So with that, we had rapid extension to the building to the left and the building to the right, which we identify as exposure two and exposure four in the fire service. 

We moved in with multiple hand lines, which we call an aggressive interior firefighting attack. That's how we operate in the FDNY. We saved many, many lives by the proper positioning of hose lines in buildings. Due to the amount of fire and the structural stability, we had to remove all our members. There were many challenges here, and then we went to exterior operations. 

In addition to the lithium-ion batteries, we had challenges with the overhead wires, the amount of fire, the construction, the voids, and of course, the overall size of the building. Lithium-ion batteries produce flammable gases. They produce toxic gases. They ignite very violently and rapidly, but they also produce many toxins. They produce hydrogen cyanide, which is extremely deadly and could be fatal in low concentrations. 

They produce carbon monoxide, which is the most abundant gas at any fire. In a few breaths, you could go unconscious and you could die in a few minutes, depending on the concentrations. Lithium-ion battery fires also produce carbon dioxide, which displaces oxygen, many, many other hazards. 

I'd like to congratulate our firefighters for preventing this fire from spreading past the point of these three homes. They did a tremendous job, and please keep all of our firefighters in your thoughts and prayers. Thank you.

Question: [Inaudible.]

Chief Fire Marshal Daniel Flynn: My name is Dan Flynn, I'm the chief fire marshal for the FDNY. So, we encourage people to keep these outside, and that's a first step in safety. But, however, they were so close to this building, as Chief Woods mentioned, this is a wood frame building. So, they're so close to the exterior of the building, when it did flail, those fires extended to that building and were able to take off from there. 

So, we want you to store them outside, but store them outside away from combustibles, so we don't want them very close to the building, because that initial fire will extend to the building itself. These were on the porch. They were very, very close to the building itself. 

Question: [Inaudible.]

Chief Flynn: Some were for mobility issues. There was a handicapped resident that used this just for mobility. But some were not, so it was a mix. There were approximately five lithium-ion powered devices there, two of which were charging. 

And we were able to confirm that at least one of these devices was not UL certified. So that's a message that we put out there, and it is actually illegal to sell non-UL certified devices within the city.

Question: [Inaudible.]

Chief Woods: We had a total of 13 injuries, eight firefighters due to the heat. And the firefighting is physically demanding due to the heat and the debilitating effects. Most of them were minor due to heat exhaustion. One of our firefighters did go to the hospital. He's still admitted, and hopefully he gets out in a couple of days.

Question: [Inaudible.]

Chief Woods: Yes.

Question: [Inaudible.]

Chief Woods: No.

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