A nine-year-old boy has been killed in fire caused by an electric scooter that was left charging through the night.
Remi Miguel Gomez Hernandez died in the blaze and more than a dozen people were injured at the three-story Queens building in New York on Wednesday.
New York City Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro said the fire, which started around 2am, was caused by an electric scooter.
A nine-year-old boy has been killed in fire caused by an electric scooter that was left charging through the night at his home in Queens, New York (file image)
The boy's family had just moved into the basement unit on Tuesday night, according to CBS2.
They were charging an e-scooter battery near the child's room when it caught on fire, and police said the fire spread from the basement to the upper floors.
The child’s parents and another sibling escaped through a back door, and Nigro said his father suffered burns trying to rescue his son.
The basement where the boy was sleeping had no smoke detector and may have been illegally converted to residential space, the commissioner said.
Firefighters worked 'heroically' to remove 14 people from the building, Nigro said, adding, 'Unfortunately one of the people they removed was a 9-year-old boy who perished in that fire.'
The family were charging an e-scooter battery near the child's room when it caught on fire, and police said the fire spread from the basement to the upper floors (file image)
The other building residents were treated for smoke inhalation, and one firefighter was also treated for minor injuries, officials said.
Nigro said the city has seen 60 structure fires and three fatalities caused by batteries used to charge electric bikes and scooters in the past year.
'These folks had just moved in the day before,' Nigro said at a promotion ceremony for fire marshals.
'They'd been charging batteries overnight. The batteries ignited and possibly exploded and caused this fire and trapped this young boy.'
The basement where the boy was sleeping had no smoke detector and may have been illegally converted to residential space (the home, pictured)
Nigro said e-bikes and e-scooters, which became legal to use on New York City streets only last year, should never be charged overnight when people are sleeping.
'This loss of life could have been prevented,' he said. 'And we'll work very hard moving forward to make this a safer city by working on how we can eliminate fires started by charging batteries.'
The commissioner said the batteries are proving to be an extreme hazard throughout the city, and have been 'known to overheat' and 'explode'.
He added: 'People go to sleep, they take a long time to charge, so they'll charge them overnight, and as in this instance, the boy wakes up and there's no way out.
'Frequently, where do people charge these batteries? Right near the front door and what does that do? It blocks in their exit.'