JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Jacksonville Fire & Rescue is sending out a warning about using lithium batteries, if you’re not careful, they can produce a major fire hazard.
Firefighters tell News4JAX they are seeing more calls for service because of these batteries.
Lithium batteries are used in things like cell phones, portable chargers, and vape pens. Firefighters are warning that if you charge your phone in the car during the summer, don’t put it on the dash. That could cause the battery to overheat.
Another warning, if the batteries aren’t used or stored properly, or if they are damaged, it can cause a fire or even an explosion.
“All of your rechargeable house stuff nowadays uses lithium ion batteries,” JFRD Battalion Chief, Frank Gillis, said.
Battalion Chief Gillis has been studying this for the last two years and told News4JAX that once these batteries go into what’s called, thermal runaway, they release toxic gases including hydrogen fluoride that rapidly ignites and burns.
“It expands and it starts coming out of these batteries, if that happens, get away from that battery and call 911,” Gillis said.
Fire officials say they have worked at least two scenes as a result of these batteries. A few months ago, a vape pen being charged on a portable external battery, caught fire on a plane. It ignited a piece of luggage in an overhead compartment, causing the plane to make an emergency landing at Jacksonville International Airport.
It sent ten people to the hospital.
“We just didn’t know that that trend was going to start increasing,” Gillis said.
Firefighters blame after-market batteries, not designed by the manufacturer of a device, as the main culprit of these fires.
JFRD showed News4JAX several homes where electric scooters caught fire.
They say if you can avoid charging these electric scooters inside your home, and make sure to unplug any unattended devices.
“The larger the battery the more power its going to have and the more intense the smoke that comes out of it will be and that smoke is what is flammable,” Gillis said.
JFRD Fire Chief Keith Powers said, “If this happens with one of these batteries do not try to extinguish it because a normal fire extinguisher will not put it out, you need to get out of the structure.”
Powers said if you see smoking, hissing, popping or rapid heat build up on the device, those are signs the battery is starting to fail.
“We know what’s coming to us we’re just trying to get ahead of it and hopefully don’t have the fatalities that they’re having in New York and these western cities we’re trying to prevent that,” Chief Powers said.
Firefighters say since it’s hurricane season, so if you have to evacuate your home, make sure all of these types of devices are unplugged and not left unattended.
You can drop off damaged or lithium ion batteries that no longer work at places like Home Depot, Lowes and the Jacksonville Hazardous Waste Center.