For the first time in their campaign to stamp out e-bike battery fires, the Fire Department Friday filed criminal charges against an e-bike shop owner who has repeatedly faced civil summons for allegedly selling illegal uncertified batteries and charging the potentially explosive batteries in an unsafe manner.

Just after noon Friday, fire marshals arrived at the Electric Bicycle Shop at 1239 Flatbush Ave. in Flatbush, Brooklyn, arresting and handcuffing the store owner, Tian Liang Liu. The charges, including reckless endangerment, relate to fire code violations due to the unsafe storage and charging of batteries.

This is the first time the department has used criminal charges against those violating laws related to e-bike batteries. Until now the FDNY and the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection have strictly relied on hitting store owners with civil penalties. In most cases, those only carry minimal financial penalties.

The arrest indicates the FDNY’s increasing frustration in its efforts to end a disturbing trend that has skyrocketed since the number of micro-mobility devices mushroomed during the pandemic. More than 660 e-bike battery fires have erupted across the city since 2019, killing 28 New Yorkers and injuring 400 more.

The most recent tragedy occurred in February with the death of Fazil Khan, 27, a reporter at The Hechinger Report. Fire marshals determined an e-bike battery exploded inside a third-floor unit of a Harlem apartment building where six men who are food delivery workers lived and spread thick black smoke throughout the building. Khan’s death was attributed to heat injuries and smoke inhalation.

In the case of the Electric Bicycle Shop, the authorities have repeatedly issued summons there for a variety of infractions, records obtained by THE CITY show.

In May 2023, the FDNY launched  city-wide random inspections of e-bike sales and repair shops after a lithium-ion battery fire in a Chinatown e-bike shop killed four residents living above the shop.

That August, fire inspectors paid a scheduled visit to the Electric Bicycle Shop, issuing three summons for violating rules about safe storage and charging of lithium-ion batteries.

The owners apparently didn’t get the message because in October DCWP hit the shop’s owner, A&D NYC Inc., with a summons for selling or leasing illegal uncertified batteries. Starting last September the city outlawed the sale of these batteries, requiring that all batteries be certified as safe by a consumer safety group such as UL Listed.

That wasn’t the end of it. In January, DCWP returned to the shop, this time hitting A&D NYC Inc. with yet another summons.