With lithium-ion batteries used in household items like cellphones, laptops, tablets, e-bikes and scooters, fire departments are grappling with how to respond when those batteries become unstable.
South Huron fire Chief Jeremy Becker raised the topic at council’s July 15 meeting.
“These batteries have become a common and important power source in our daily lives,” Becker said in his report. “However, they can pose significant risks to people and property if not handled and taken care of properly.”
While Becker said the batteries “are designed and built to be a safe and efficient way to store power for a variety of applications,” a challenge for firefighters is “understanding lithium-ion batteries when they become unstable and dealing with the event caused by this instability.”
Becker said the term for an unstable battery is a “thermal runaway,” which occurs during an internal short circuit and chemical reaction causing the battery cell to rupture.
“Thermal runaway releases a vapour in the form of hydrogen and produces significant heat,” Becker said. “Parts of the cell itself can become a projectile creating other hazards.”
Signs of a thermal runaway can include hissing, popping and odour.
“Once a battery is in thermal runaway, there is nothing anyone can do to stop it, as it cannot be extinguished using conventional firefighting methods with water or foam,” Becker said. “The best way to attack it is to cool the cells, which can take a long time and a large amount of water.”
Becker said one consideration when dealing with a lithium-ion battery in thermal runaway is to not apply water directly to it, but instead to let the cell burn itself out.
Batteries not directly involved in an event, but which may have been impacted by it, “need to be carefully handled and removed, packaged safely and disposed of properly as they too can go into thermal runaway up to several weeks after the original event,” Becker said.
The fire department is talking with local businesses and is working on public service announcements to educate residents about battery safety.
As well, Becker said the municipality is discussing setting up a safe area for lithium-ion batteries at the South Huron landfill.
“I will be meeting with our staff and we’ll be able to come up with a solution at the landfill,” he said.
Huron County fire departments are also working on guidelines regarding responses involving lithium-ion batteries.
“It is a very dangerous topic,” Becker said. “The province is currently having seminars on a very regular basis to educate the fire departments on it. We’re still very much in the learning phase of this. . . . There will be some public service announcements in the very near future on our social media channels for our residents.”
Becker said it’s estimated the average home in Ontario has 70 lithium-ion batteries in various devices.
Council later in the meeting passed a motion supporting a letter from the Township of Otonabee-South Monaghan calling for all levels of government to enact regulations regarding the safe use and storage of lithium-ion batteries.