Battery fires a concern for Maritime departments as numbers grow
Batteries power many things in our lives, from phones to laptops to even cars, but there’s a danger lurking in our battery dependency.
As electronics become an ever-more pervasive part of our lives, so do lithium ion battery fires. That’s according to the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs.
“The amount of heat that’s produced is so rapid that it becomes, basically, explosive” said Robert Hebb, Halifax Regional Fire & Emergency district chief and Hazardous Materials Response team manager. “At that point in time, anything close by will be consumed by the fire.”
Toronto and Vancouver have seen big jumps in battery fires compared to other types, but it’s not just a problem in big cities.
“Unfortunately because things have happened so quickly and lithium batteries have really experienced such rapid growth,” said Hebb. “One expression that one of the firefighter uses is, ‘We’re literally building the plane as we fly it,’ so we’re fighting these fires and we’re learning as we go.”
Halifax Fire is learning from the experiences of those bigger centres to train for these new types of fires.
Most people don’t realize the danger a damaged or faulty battery creates.
“Please don’t charge your phones on a bed, that type of thing. We’ve seen incidents of that happening,” said Charlottetown Deputy Chief Kent Mitchell. “Excessive heat can cause an issue. We’ve seen an incident where a cell phone has caught fire in a car parked in the summertime, on the dash.”
You should also unplug your electronics after they’re charged and don’t leave them plugged in all night. He said it’s important to always use compatible batteries and cables for electronic devices.
Electric cars have also changed the way firefighters approach vehicle fires, which can take hours and 50,000 gallons of water to put out.
“We’ve learned that it’s quicker to let the vehicle burn out,” said Hebb. “It can take 45 minutes to an hour for it to completely burn out, so we utilize our water to protect the exposures and just allow the vehicle to finish burning.”
E-bikes and scooters are one of the main drivers of the growth in battery fires. He said people should never charge them inside a home, particularly in hallways where they can be both a source of fire and block escape from the building.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Parents of infant who died in wrong-way crash on Ontario's Hwy. 401 were in same vehicle
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has released new details about a wrong-way collision in Whitby on Monday night that claimed the lives of four people.
Three Quebec men from same family father hundreds of children
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
B.C. mayor stripped of budget, barred from committees over Indigenous residential schools book
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
OPP's mandatory alcohol screening during traffic stops 'not acceptable': CCLA
A spike in impaired driving-related collisions has caused Ontario’s provincial police to begin enforcing mandatory alcohol screening (MAS) at all traffic stops in the Greater Toronto Area -- a move one civil rights group says is ‘not acceptable.’
Maple Leafs down Bruins 2-1 to force Game 7
William Nylander scored twice and Joseph Woll made 22 saves as the Toronto Maple Leafs downed the Boston Bruins 2-1 on Thursday to force Game 7 in their first-round series.
Jurors in Trump hush money trial hear recording of pivotal call on plan to buy affair story
Jurors in the hush money trial of Donald Trump heard a recording Thursday of him discussing with his then-lawyer and personal fixer a plan to purchase the silence of a Playboy model who has said she had an affair with the former president.
Southern Alberta store broken into by burly black bear
Staff at a small southern Alberta office supply store were shocked to find someone had broken into the business last week, but they were even more confused when they discovered the culprit was a bear.
Captain sentenced to 4 years for criminal negligence in fiery deaths of 34 aboard scuba boat
A federal judge on Thursday sentenced a scuba dive boat captain to four years in custody and three years supervised release for criminal negligence after 34 people died in a fire aboard the vessel.
New scam targets Canada Carbon Rebate recipients
Fake text message and email campaigns trying to get money and information out of unsuspecting Canadian taxpayers have started circulating, just months after the federal government rebranded the carbon tax rebate the Canada Carbon Rebate.