The Los Angeles Times recently highlighted a few incidents, one of them being a big rig that overturned in September near the Port of Los Angeles. That led to a fire that "spewed toxic gases, snarled port traffic, and resulted in what one official said was massive economic losses from delayed shipments."
The Times also points to a May fire in San Diego that burned for two weeks, as well as a September 2023 fire at a battery storage unit in San Diego County.
Lithium-ion batteries are used in many devices these days from everyday consumer products such as cellphones, laptops and headphones to vehicles. Fire officials told the Times "they are generally safe with proper care and storage" – but Larry Behrens of Power The Future still urges caution, especially when it comes to vehicles.
"They are dangerous … because we have pushed them so quickly that the standards and the rules and the training for safety have not been developed to the degree that they need to be," explains Behrens.
He points out that because fires involving lithium-ion batteries could happen anywhere, fire safety officials need to examine whether their departments have the training and materials to handle such incidents.
"… Obviously we all have [lithium-ion batteries] in our cell phones," says Behrens, "but when you add hundreds of pounds to these batteries, then we start to find a source that is supposed to combustible, that right now we don't have a perfect understanding of how safe it can be on this massive scale – and we need to make sure that not only are properties protected but our firefighters are as well."
