A garbage truck burst into flames Friday near East Tremont and Waterbury avenues in Pelham Bay, sending fire crews scrambling to the scene. No one was injured, and the cause of the blaze remained unclear as crews worked to bring it under control.
Firefighters stayed on scene to handle the situation, according to News 12 Bronx, which reported the fire. FDNY has not yet said what sparked the flames.
A Citywide Pattern of Battery-Sparked Blazes
The Pelham Bay fire lands amid a sharp rise in garbage-truck fires tied to discarded lithium-ion batteries across the five boroughs. Lithium-ion battery fires citywide are up 41 percent compared to last year, according to Streetsblog NYC, which cites FDNY figures showing 87 lithium-ion fires in garbage trucks so far this year. Seventy-six of those fires involved DSNY sanitation trucks specifically, up from 55 in all of 2025, the outlet reports.
A DSNY spokesperson told Staten Island Advance/SILive that as of July 20, there had been 100 fires in collection trucks in 2026, with lithium batteries blamed for 55 of them. The same outlet's report on that incident noted that FDNY traced smoke coming from the rear of a sanitation truck in New Dorp, Staten Island, to a discarded lithium-ion battery, and that three FDNY units, including a hazmat truck, responded to the scene.
Another Truck Caught Fire on Staten Island
A fire also broke out in the rear of a DSNY truck near Sand Lane and Olympia Boulevard in South Beach, Staten Island. DSNY spokesperson Vincent Gragnani confirmed to Staten Island Advance/SILive that the South Beach fire was started by a lithium-ion battery that had been thrown in the trash, and no injuries were reported in that incident.
Other recent fires have been less fortunate. PIX11 reported that a garbage-truck fire in Crown Heights, which broke out around noon near Dearborn Court and Montgomery Street, left two sanitation workers hospitalized with moderate injuries after a department spokesperson said it was likely caused by a lithium-ion battery.
Earlier Bronx Incident Showed How the Fires Start
A similar fire broke out closer to home in April, when a garbage truck caught fire near 3425 Dekalb Avenue in the Norwood section of the Bronx. Norwood News reported that FDNY determined several lithium batteries packed inside a bag caused that blaze, and that sanitation workers who spotted smoke while cycling the truck's hopper called 911 and dumped the truck's load. No one was hurt, according to the DSNY press secretary, who said in a statement that the department was “grateful for NYPD's prompt response and that no one was hurt.”
Norwood News also reported that DSNY has said lithium batteries have caused dozens of collection-truck fires in recent years. In the first three quarters of this year, 61 percent of lithium-ion battery fires were classified by FDNY as non-structural, according to Streetsblog NYC's reporting.
After the fire, the exact cause of the Pelham Bay blaze had not been determined, and FDNY had not said whether a battery was involved. Fire crews remained on scene following the blaze near East Tremont and Waterbury avenues.
