Salt Spring’s fire chief says an early-morning Fulford fire last month might have been prevented, and that islanders can improve their own safety through better practices storing and charging small lithium-ion batteries.
In a report to fire district trustees Monday, Oct. 20, Salt Spring Island Fire Rescue Chief Jamie Holmes said firefighters responding to the Sept. 9 blaze — and the homeowners — were fortunate, in that both a neighbour and a firefighter who lived nearby were able to get some water into the house through an exterior window, dousing most of the flames before they spread.
Working smoke alarms had already successfully warned the residents, he said, who were able to exit the building with their pets and call 911.
But after fire crews cleared the heavy smoke from the building, they discovered the fire began at a lithium battery and quickly spread to cardboard and paper stored nearby.
“An electric scooter bike was charging, through multiple chargers and a few octopuses and other extension cords,” said Holmes. “The lithium-ion battery itself had taken off, caught the scooter on fire, which then caught the recycling on fire and started to spread throughout the lower floor of the house.”
Holmes said the number of battery fires across B.C. and Canada has been growing, almost entirely due to improper charging, care or dispoal methods.
“We’re seeing huge spikes in these fires as the batteries become commonplace in our everyday lives,” said Holmes.
He said it is critical to use the correct charger for each battery, to ensure the charging units are CSA approved and to avoid replacing any electrical components with “knockoff” parts. Equally important is disposal, he added, as the batteries become increasingly unstable with age.
“A lot of times you’ll have old cell phones sitting in a drawer, and they rattle around and bang on each other — and as the batteries deteriorate, they can combust,” he said. “Or your cordless power tools that end up sitting in the garage getting older and older; and a lot of times they just stay plugged in, even though they’re not really holding a charge anymore. It’s important to dispose of them in a safe manner.”
“Between disposing of them safely when they’re at end-of-life, and only using CSA-approved batteries and chargers,” said Holmes, “following just those two things you will probably get rid of the high 90-percentile of fires that we’re seeing.”