A Friday night explosion and fire inside a Crown Heights NYCHA development left an 18-year-old man dead, police and fire officials said, with a lithium-ion battery reportedly linked to the blaze.
The blast erupted around 7 p.m. on the 12th floor of Albany Houses near Prospect Place, prompting a major emergency response that brought more than 120 FDNY and EMS personnel to the scene.
Firefighters brought the flames under control by about 8 p.m.
NY1 reported that the fire was connected to a lithium-ion battery.
The victim was rushed to One Brooklyn Health-Interfaith Medical Center with serious, life-threatening injuries and was later pronounced dead by hospital staff, according to police.
A neighbor who said she knew the victim’s family told PIX11 she had been “talking to the mother last week,” adding that “we was having good talk about our kids.”
“And that’s messed up how we both moved here young with our small children and for her to lose one…that is tremendous,” the neighbor said.
Authorities have not released the victim’s name, and investigators are still working to determine what caused the explosion.
The FDNY could not confirm or deny whether a lithium-ion battery was connected to the fire.
