Blaze kills boy, 9
'Illegal' Qns. apt. e-bike charger cited
A 9-year-old boy was killed in a blaze that broke out at his illegally converted Queens apartment early Wednesday when a charger on his dad’s e-bike burst into flames, authorities said — despite desperate rescue efforts as he cried for help.
Remi Miguel Gomez Hernandez was trapped in the family’s basement apartment as flames engulfed the three-story Ozone Park home shortly before 2 a.m., police said. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
“He was screaming, ‘Mommy, Mommy, help me!’ ” family friend Humberto Gilbert told The Post. “It was really bad because we were trying to save him.”
Neighbors said the family had just moved into the basement apartment a day earlier — and that the boy’s father used the e-bike for his delivery job.
FDNY Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro blamed the inferno on “charging a battery for an electric bike.”
Mohammed Ahmed, who owns the neighboring building, recalled the dramatic scene.
“I was sleeping when my kids ran into the hallway,” he said. “They were screaming, ‘Fire, fire.’ The kids smelled the smoke. They couldn’t breathe.
“I jumped up. My whole house was covered in smoke. My wife and three daughters — we went through the front door.” He added, “I saw smoke all over the place. It was black. I saw a lot of smoke coming out of the basement and the driveway. I heard the screaming. This lady was screaming, ‘Call the police, call the police.’ ”
The boy’s father tried to desperately reach the trapped boy, but it was too late — flames had engulfed the entire apartment, neighbors said.
One neighbor, Jamil Halim, said the building had recently been sold and that the owner converted an underground garage into an illegal apartment.
“The front is supposed to be the garage,” Halim said. “The back is supposed to be for storage. They
made the whole thing into an apartment to generate income. It could’ve been prevented.”
City Department of Buildings records show that there were complaints about an illegal apartment in the basement of the building as far back as 2012, but inspectors were twice unable to gain access to confirm.
The most recent complaint came in December 2020, but city inspectors were again unable to get into the building, the records show.
“DOB inspectors and engineers are on scene at this morning’s tragic fatal fire, where a dangerous illegal conversion was discovered in the cellar of the building,” the DOB said in an e-mail on Wednesday.
“Our joint investigation, conducted alongside our partners in law enforcement, is ongoing.”
The building’s owners could not immediately be reached for comment.
Nigro said Wednesday’s fatality was the third this year linked to e-bike batteries.
“We’ve had numerous fires, numerous injuries, property damage, all caused by charging these batteries in the bikes,” he said.
Fire officials said 10 other people and one firefighter suffered non-lifethreatening injuries at the Wednesday morning blaze.
They were taken to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, according to the FDNY.
Twelve FDNY units, including 60 members, responded to the scene The fire was under control by around 2:30 a.m..