Industry News

Lithium Ion Batteries – 5 Largest Fires To Date

April 4, 2022 by FASS

At FASS, we have covered in a couple of news updates the dangers of lithium batteries in terms of a fire and/or explosion risk if they are not stored correctly, or protected from impact and damage or used in inferior quality items. The resulting fire can be truly catastrophic even from a relatively small battery.

Our attention was drawn to a recent article posted by ERI online which looks at the other end of the scale, the 5 largest known Lithium Battery fires in the USA to date (March 2022) which really illustrates the intensity and destructive power caused by these fires.

It is therefor extremely important to follow these key steps:

Only buy devices from an authorised or legitimate dealer, do not be tempted by inferior replica products that may be cheaper
Always follow correct usage and storage guidance for Lithium Batteries
In Public buildings, offices, care homes, schools etc it is always good practice to ensure you have the correct extinguisher medium (i.e. NOT water for lithium batteries!) available for the devices you have. FASS are happy to advise you of this
When your device or battery reaches the end of it’s life, always recycle the Lithium Ion Batteries responsibly. Check with your local authority for the location of suitable recycling facilities

Here are the 5 largest Lithium Ion Battery fires in the USA to date as listed by ERI Online:

Royal Waste Services in Jamaica, New York

One of the biggest fires ever was a five-alarm fire in Jamaica, New York. A lithium-ion battery sparked a blaze that brought much of the Long Island Rail Road system to a halt for ten hours. Clouds of black smoke overtook the region as hundreds of firefighters battled the fire.

What caused the plant’s fire? It turned out that a single lithium-ion battery sparked trash, piles of paper, and cardboard recycling, and wind gusts of up to 37 mph added to the problems firefighters faced. It took close to a full day to extinguish the fire. Power lines that were affected by the fire had to be replaced.

Superior Battery in Morris, Illinois

An abandoned paper mill in Morris, Illinois, caught fire in 2021, leading to the evacuation of more than 1,000 homes. The owner of the building was storing lithium batteries he planned to use to start a solar power company called Superior Battery. It’s believed that water leaking in from the roof, sparked a battery to ignite, and things steamrolled from there.

More than 200,000 lithium batteries were in the building, creating a chain reaction of battery explosions that added to the initial battery fire. City officials and firefighters were unaware lithium ion batteries were stored in the building, so they first battled the fire with water, which is dangerous and made things worse.

Because water is ineffective for putting out large-scale lithium ion battery fires, over 1,000 pounds of a dry chemical known as Purple-K was used, but that didn’t help extinguish the growing fire. Instead, dry cement was pumped in to cover the burning batteries to a depth of three feet.

Governor Pritzker was forced to declare a disaster due to this fire. The building’s owner hadn’t yet notified the city of the batteries in the building, nor had he filed business permits. Plus, he didn’t have insurance putting the responsibility of the cost of putting out the fire and evacuations on the taxpayers’ shoulders. In August, the Illinois Attorney General’s Office filed a lawsuit against Superior Battery hoping to get some money to lower the burden on taxpayers.

Felicity Ace Burns in the Atlantic Ocean

In February 2022, a ship sailing from Germany to the USA caught fire. On that ship were around 4,000 vehicles from Audi, Bentley, Lamborghini, Porsche, and Volkswagen. While the cause of the fire is yet unknown, many of the cars onboard were EVs, and their lithium-ion batteries posed a threat for reignition. All crew escaped the ship and reported that the smoke was coming from burning vehicles, raising questions if an EV car’s battery sparked the blaze.

Crews fought the blaze for weeks before the ship sank off the coast of the Portuguese Azores in what is essentially no man’s land. Despite the ship’s final resting spot sitting outside of Portugal’s jurisdiction, the Portuguese military has been monitoring the ocean for pollution as the thousands of vehicles had more than 4,000 tons of fuel and oil combined.

Shoreway Environmental Center in San Carlos, California

A four-alarm fire broke out at South Bayside Waste Management Authority’s Shoreway Environmental Center back in 2016. It took 79 firefighters several hours to put the fire out. A few days later, a second fire occurred. No one was injured in either blaze, but the facility did experience water and smoke damage that took three months to correct and kept the facility from being able to operate as normal.

During that time, some of the workers had to be laid off for a few months . Insurance rates for the facility drastically increased, driving up prices for area residents. One thing the facility’s general manager made clear after is that area residents need to be very careful when it comes to recycling. Batteries cannot go into trash or recycling bins. When consumers do this, a small amount of damage is all it takes for a lithium battery to explode and start a fire.

Vistra Energy’s Facility in Moss Landing, California

Vistra Energy is the world’s largest battery storage facility for storing solar and wind energy. The risk of combustion from overheating is higher, especially if the batteries are damaged in some way. This is exactly what happened at Vistra Energy. While systems prevented the battery storage facility from going up in flames, the fact that even a few packs melted is concerning.

Back in September, the 300 megawatt facility shut down when several overheating battery packs melted and triggered the fire suppression system to kick in. About 7,000 batteries were soaked by the system and damaged in the process. The company shut down the 300 megawatt facility, but a smaller 100 megawatt facility was still in operation at the site.

On February 13th, that smaller facility experienced a second incident. Again, it’s believed that water hoses leaked and damaged some of the facility’s battery packs. It was especially concerning as the company was about to reopen the 300 megawatt facility. Those plans have since been scrapped until the facility can figure out how to prevent additional meltdowns if there are hose leaks. While the fire suppression system worked effectively both times, there are fears about what could happen if the systems failed and hundreds of these batteries exploded.

For further information on the correct extinguishers for Lithium Ion Batteries or advice on your Fire and Safety needs, please contact us.

Amazon delivery drone crash causes acres-wide fire in the USA

March 28, 2022 by FASS

A recent Business Insider report has brought to the wider Worlds attention an incident where an experimental Amazon Prime Air drone set several acres of a wheat alight after crashing in eastern Oregon during a test flight last summer.

Details contained within the June 2021 FAA report seen by the publication, describes how the Amazon delivery drone prototype (Model MK27) was flying at an altitude of 160 feet before it suffered motor failure and crashed to the ground. The drone was seen “tumbling in uncontrolled free fall until it contacted the ground,” following which an “intense lithium battery fire quickly consumed the aircraft.” which then resulted in the field fire.

This is not the first incident Amazon have experienced with drones suffering failure, only a few weeks prior to this incident another delivery drone prototype crashed due to propeller failure although fortunately it did not result in a lithium battery fire.

Whilst the purpose of development is to push the drones to the outer limits to understand the operational boundaries, this does also highlight the inherent risk of lithium batteries dropping from altitude at speed and the potential for a fire on impact. This is true of all drones and something operators of drones should be mindful of.

Letting Agents Multiple Fire Risk Failures – A Costly Mistake

December 13, 2021 by FASS

At FASS we often witness first hand Fire Safety Risks due to landlords or letting agents not being fully aware of their legal obligations with regards to Fire Safety Regulations. Thankfully these are often corrected as part of a Risk Assessment carried out by FASS. However we were interested to read an industry article that highlights the sadly not uncommon situation where despite receiving advice and guidance, a landlord or letting agent chooses to ignore this, and the potential life threatening consequences, by continuing to cut costs with fire safety measures and not fulfilling their legal obligation.

Article courtesy of Warren Spencer via Letting Agent Today

Agency must pay £80,000 after multiple fire risk failures

A London property managing agent has been ordered to pay more than £80,000 for safety failings which “exposed a potentially large number of people to risk of death or serious injury from fire”.

London Fire Brigade inspectors found serious fire safety defects during two visits to a five-storey building in Islington which is managed by Eurolets (UK) Limited.

An Enforcement Notice requiring the company to address the concerns was issued following a visit in 2016, which was subsequently sufficiently complied with. However, a later visit then found similar defects to the previous inspection.

The building consists of more than 40 self-contained flats let out to tenants and the inspections revealed deficiencies including combustible material near the entrance to the premises; lack of fire extinguishers and signage; doors wedged open; holes within the walls and a non-functioning fire alarm.

Eurolets was charged with 10 separate offences under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order and the company entered guilty pleas to all charges.

The judge at Westminster Magistrates Court found that the company fell far short of the appropriate standards and there was serious and/or systemic failure within the organisation to address risks.

London Fire Brigade’s Assistant Commissioner for Fire Safety, Paul Jennings, says: “The combined effect of the deficiencies was that if a fire had started, there was a risk of an uncontrolled spread of heat, and smoke and flames affecting the whole premises, coupled with the only means of escape being overcome with smoke.

“In sentencing, the judge made it clear that she increased the fine because of the large number of residents that had been put at risk by the company’s lack of action to address concerns.

“We are pleased with the outcome of this case, which is thanks to the hard work which is done every day by our fire safety inspectors. It should also serve as a warning to property managers that we will take action where people are not taking their responsibilities seriously.

“There’s no excuse for leaving people’s safety to chance, especially when information is so readily available to those with responsibility for safety in buildings to understand what their duties are and ensure they comply with the law.”

Eurolets was charged with these offences and entered a guilty plea to all of them:

Failure to take general fire precautions;
Failure to have a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment;
Failure to ensure appropriate fire arrangements;
Failure to ensure exit routes were clear and unlocked;
Failure to ensure appropriate fire safety measures in place and conveyed to employees and residents;
Failure to maintain and ensure fire safety equipment;
Failure to provide employees with sufficient fire safety information;
Failure to provide adequate safety training;
Failure to ensure adequate structural compartmentation;
A further charge in respect of combustible items in the second inspection.

Eurolets was ordered to pay a fine of £60,000 on the first charge with no separate penalties for the remaining charges, a victim surcharge of £170 and costs of £20,000.

The total of £80,170 is to be paid over 10 months at a rate of £8,000 a month.

The Hidden Electrical Fire Risk As We Approach Christmas

November 28, 2021 by FASS

With the recent Black Friday sales and as we head towards Christmas, a large number of us will be treating ourselves or family to new electrical devices and items. From tablets and phones, to new lights for the Christmas tree, this time of year see’s a surge in electrical purchases.

At FASS we would like to take this opportunity to urge people to only purchase official, licensed or reputable brands rather than being tempted by cheaper alternatives that are so readily available online. Often these products are made to lower standards and do not meet the safety levels required, potentially leading to malfunction and fire in your home.

One such incident happened recently in Darlignton (as reported in The Northern Echo), where an unofficial iPhone charger exploded, setting light to a mattress in a teenagers bedroom. Fortunately no-one was injured, but the house has suffered extensive damage and life-long possessions have been lost.

It is simply not worth the risk to purchase unofficial items and we would always encourage everyone to only buy official, licensed products from reputable retailers.
For our commercial clients we are able to provide Portable Appliance Testing (PAT) to ensure that electrical devices are safe to use. In addition we also provide Dry Powder Fire Extinguishers which are extremely effective on electrical fires. For further information, please contact us.

‘Sail on’ Fire Suppression for Boats

February 3, 2017 by FASS

Fire Suppression for yachts and boats Browsing through the Fire and Safety Industry articles that we are sent every month there is occasionally an article that really stands out and makes us wonder why you wouldn’t install simple fire safety equipment to prevent the fire from taking hold. This months stand out feature is on Super yachts, whilst it’s fair to say that no one here in the FASS office has had much in the way of ownership of a Super yacht, the same principle also applies to smaller pleasure craft. This is particularly relevant if you own a fishing boat or canal boat for example, any kind of boat that you rent or hire out to people.

As a little bit of background information, the article centers around a recent series of Super yacht fires throughout 2016, one in St Thomas, plus two multimillion-dollar yachts in the Abu Dhabi Marina Yacht Club in early March, taking six boats with them. Two months earlier, a fire damaged two super yachts at a marina in Marmaris, Turkey, and another super yacht, the 95-foot Queen Anna, caught fire in Fethiye, Turkey. In these instances it was maintenance that was assumed to be the cause, primarily electrical fires as ships get older or emergency repairs are made at sea then not properly rectified etc. One of the issues the article was highlighting is that usually it’s not just the one yacht that catches fire, they’re nearly always in a marina when it happens and as they are moored so close together, typically it will take the surrounding vessels with it.

This is a concern if you are a yacht owner or boat owner and you may be wondering where FASS fit in to this. Most people are aware of the basics required with fire prevention or rapid fire extinguishing, on board their boat will be a selection of fire extinguishers and a fire blanket – in fact most insurance companies would specify this as a requirement. Whilst the very high end Super yachts will have fire suppression systems built in to them, many boats, especially older craft, will not and this is where FASS can help.

A fire suppression system will instantly react at the source of the fire before it take holds, the pipe work containing the extuishant will busts over the flame, flooding it with the extinguisher within seconds. The system is fully automatic, low maintenance and more importantly it can be retro-fitted in to boats. Our fire suppression systems are highly flexible and be scaled to fit your requirements and can be installed sensitively to avoid either unsightly pipe work or damaging historic or important areas of the boat.

So before you ‘sail on’ into the sunset, take a moment to consider whether your boat has adequate protection from fire. If you would like further information on our Fire Suppression Systems or how FASS can help you, please contact us or call 0800 298 0258.

Landlord or tenant – are you sure you’re protected from fire?

December 18, 2016 by FASS

If you are a Landlord or a letting agent acting as a Landlord you know you have specific fire prevention and fire safety obligations to meet, aside from being a legal requirement, you would like to think everyone would want to ensure that someone staying within a property they own or manage is safe. Yet time and time again at FASS we read of continued prosecutions of Landlords who fail to meet the most basic standards when it comes to Fire Safety, putting tenants lives and risk and those of neighbouring properties as well. It’s as infuriating as it is astounding to us especially as FASS are highly experienced and able to assist you with ensuring that you meet all current fire regulations and that your tenants are safe.

Domestic Fire Alarm In one recent article a letting agency in Scunthorpe was charged with six offences relating to breaches of the Management of Houses in Multiple Occupation (England) Regulations 2006 including:

Failure to take appropriate safety measures – missing fire alarms in the communal areas of the property;
Failure to maintain common parts, fixtures, fittings and appliances – light fittings missing and one with exposed wiring, the stair carpet had holes and badly worn plus a window in the communal area was rotten
Failure to provide waste disposal facilities – there was an accumulation of domestic waste to the rear of the property.

At FASS we welcome the prosecution and subsequent fine of this letting agent fortunately due to this action the tenants will now be safe, however there are still many more properties without adequate fire protection measures in place.

If you are a tenant and feel that your rented property is not safe or does not meet fire regulations we urge you to contact your local authority and report your concerns. The importance of fire safety can not be overstated, take simple steps to prevent fire now.

If you are a Landlord and are unsure of the current regulations and risks associated with fire or would like FASS to carry out a Fire Safety Survey please contact us for further information.