As you begin to buy holiday gifts for your family or loved ones, you might be surprised at how many things use lithium-ion batteries. Every year, it's estimated that there are more than 5,000 lithium-ion battery fires at recycling facilities in the U.S. alone. That's not counting the residential and business fires caused by them. And they aren't like other kinds of fires.
The violence with which these fires start makes them even more dangerous.
"With lithium-ion batteries, they burn so violently that really, it's just how quick we can get there and how quick we can get copious amounts of water on that fire," said Ben Porter of the Unified Fire Authority.
"The neighbors were there, the ambulance, the fire department, they all came rushing," said Blanca Evans, a lithium-ion battery fire victim.
A little more than a year ago, Evans was just about asleep one night when the lithium-ion batteries in her garage caught fire. She had been storing a bunch of hoverboards and scooters for a neighbor who was selling them. Then the neighbors came pounding on her door.
"How fast did all of this unfold?” Evans was asked by FOX 13 News Anchor Bob Evans (no relation).
“It was fast," she said. "I was laying down, just kind of dozing off, and all of a sudden, I had come out, and I could see the smoke coming out from the garage. But by the time I had been drawn out with the neighbors, the fire department was already here. I mean, it was just like I could hear them. They were right there."
"Once thermal runaway starts, there's really not much you can do except get out and call 911," Porter said.
"Thermal runaway is when a cell gets so hot that there is no way for it to cool down. It is just going to accelerate until it burns," said Adam Ostlund, operations director at Electrify Bike Company in West Jordan.
Ostlund's family owns Electrify Bike Company. Each of their bikes runs on lithium-ion batteries. Ostlund has become an expert.
"And the danger with that in a battery pack, and it's hard to tell, because a lithium-ion battery is often composed of numerous cells," he said. "One battery might look like a block like this, but inside it might be 24, 48, however many cells. If one cell gets so hot — and that could be from impact damage, it could be from temperature issues, it could be from using the wrong charger, it can be from being really old and you trying to bring it back to life without understanding what's going on — if that one cell gets too hot, it will ignite, and all the other cells will start to ignite alongside it. So it only takes one cell in a large battery to make the entire battery compromised."
So, if this is what can happen with lithium-ion batteries, why are they in just about everything you can think of?
"Lithium ions have become extremely safe. I mean, they're in every single cell phone," Ostlund said.
And tablets, laptops, digital cameras, smartwatches, fitness trackers, electric cars, hybrid cars and remote-control cars. Porter and his family love RC cars.
"Just speaking to remote controls, lithium-ion has completely changed the hobby," Porter said. "Back in the day, the really fast and powerful ones were all little engines, you know, gas-powered. You don't see those these days anymore, because everyone wants the lithium-ion. They're just so powerful, they're so quick and they're easy to maintain."
"So when you need a lot of power in a small space, that's what we go to," Ostlund said. “But not all lithium-ion batteries are made equally. When you have a name brand like Samsung or Panasonic or LG, and then you have a no-name battery, the difference is that, as with anything that's manufactured, the low-end stuff doesn't go through as rigorous testing or certification. When you purchase a product, you can't always tell what kind of battery you have, and if it's a cheap one, those are more susceptible to danger."
That's why Electrify Bike Company makes its own lithium-ion batteries using the highest U.S. government safety standards. Still, they keep them away from the bike shop and know how to store them.
"So how are you able to do this safely?” Bob Evans asked Ostlund.
"We have a rotating inventory on all our batteries, so we know the age of everything," Ostlund said. "We have a labeling system where we track how soon something came in versus how soon it goes out. We don't keep anything for extended periods of time, so nothing that goes to a customer is ever more than a few months old."
For all of us, to make sure the lithium-ion batteries we use at home don't catch fire, store them at between 40 and 80 percent charge.
Describing how he maintains the lithium-ion batteries for his family’s remote control cars, Porter said, "We can plug these batteries in, and we can hit the storage mode. If it's below the threshold, it'll bring it up. If it's above it, it'll decharge the batteries. So a charger like this for our remote-control batteries has that fail-safe. So we know that we're storing these properly."
Another must is to always use the charger that the battery comes with. Not doing so can damage the battery and result in a fire.
Remembering the fire in her garage, Blanca Evans said, "Yeah, I was really surprised, but very, very thankful. We were so blessed, and it was a miracle, because this garage is literally attached to wood, like a wood bridge, just to the house."
And if you do have a lithium-ion battery fire at your house...
"Don't think that you're going to stay inside and try and move that battery or have any kind of prolonged fight against that fire. You really need to get out and get 911 coming," Porter said. "But I want to be hesitant to say that they're just so dangerous, because I do think that they've done a good job of trying to build them safely. But with that comes the responsibility of making sure you're maintaining them properly. Make sure you're using them properly, storing them properly. Be aware that you're supposed to be treating them differently."
One more tip: buying lithium-ion batteries off the internet can be risky. It can be challenging to know who made them, how old they are, or whether they've been damaged in shipping. Name brands are safer, so do your homework. If a battery is swollen, misshapen or stops working, get rid of it at a designated drop-off location. Check online for the drop-off location nearest you.
