New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin announced November 6 that the Council will hold a joint oversight hearing on November 20 to examine residential fire safety and the storage of lithium-ion batteries, after a series of fatal fires tied to e-bike batteries in Brooklyn and the Bronx killed 10 people, Epoch Times Chinese and World Journal reported.

Menin will lead the hearing alongside Joann Ariola, who chairs the Council’s Committee on Fire and Emergency Management, and Pierina Sanchez, who chairs the Committee on Housing and Buildings, Epoch Times Chinese reported. The committees will take testimony from city agencies, fire safety experts, advocacy groups, workers and the public to assess whether current fire-safety laws are being enforced and whether new rules are needed.

The hearing follows two deadly fires. A blaze in a residential building on Eighth Avenue in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, killed six people and injured nine. In late October, a fire in a South Bronx apartment killed a family of four, including an 11-year-old boy. Menin said the two fires together killed 10 city residents, Epoch Times Chinese and World Journal reported. She said every resident should be able to live safely, and that the growing use of e-bikes and e-scooters by commuters and delivery workers made the fire risk of lithium-ion batteries impossible to ignore, Epoch Times Chinese reported.