Posted on 06/12/2025 10:02:08 AM PDT by DallasBiff
The Oklahoma City Fire Department responded to the incident on Northwest 137th Street Tuesday evening, where everyone left the house safely and no injuries were reported.
"There were several of these lithium-ion batteries charging on a worktable on the garage … there was roughly 20 that was charging,” said Scott Douglas, with the Oklahoma City Fire Department.
Douglas explained that these batteries were used to power remote control planes and racecars, but they can also be found throughout homes, powering everything from toys to cellphones to vacuum cleaners. He noted that fires caused by these batteries are becoming routine.
(Excerpt) Read more at koco.com ...
The advantage of lithium ion batteries is that they store a lot of energy. And the disadvantage is that they store a lot of energy.
How much concern should there be for hybrid vehicles in attached garage?
Made in Chyna.
How many LA rioters does it take to torch an electric Waymo car?
Need Circuit protection in the battery (Makes them more expensive)
When burning, LIPO batteries emit chlorine gas(sic) same as deathrow gas chamber type.
Recommended reading the "Conception" dive boat (California) from a few years ago where 35 customers lost their lives by way of LIPO batteries. Too many batteries for underwater cameras and lights charging off the same circuit and all next to each other where the batteries started a chain reaction fire.
Four people killed, dozens injured due to an electric scooter fire in a French apartment building in Reims last week.
Morning Midas, ship carrying 3,000 cars, abandoned after fire on electric vehicle deck
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2025/06/04/ship-cars-abandoned-fire-evs/84030266007/
NiCads and NiMh we were, I think,safer.
I had a little remote control airplane that I augered into the ground one day. The battery got damaged enough to go into runaway and it was impressive how hot and hard the Hot Wheels car sized battery burned.
In the coming years, we can expect more fires as these batteries slowly corrode.
I believe that it’s the chargers or charging circuits.
Overcharging one of those - regardless its purpose - guarantees a bad ending.
Found out the other day that one of the wife’s gadgets - an Android pad - had a battery ‘event’ at some time in the past number of months which caused it to expand and permanently pop open the case (still worked on adapter power).
I still don’t believe she understands how close we came to losing the house.
I was considering buying one of those power pack devices after our last winter storm but the idea of the lithium ion batts scared the heck out of me. I’ve settled on building my own in an old 20mm ammo can with lithium iron phosphate batts. Now that I’m typing that, I really need to get back to that little side project...
“we can expect more fires as these batteries slowly corrode.”
People have a bad habit of keeping old smartphones, tablets , laptops and power tool packs. Once they reach low state of charge due to self discharge they pose little risk of thermal run away as they eventually reach near zero state of charge. The lithium in ion form is not what catches fire or busts cases open, it’s the electrolyte that burns and you need a pretty good state of charge to get a thermal runaway event. At worse a old fully discarded cell is going to leak caustic liquids all over.
The cause of most thermal runaway is overcharging leading to gas generating and shorting the contacts out due to contact with a near by cells opposite contact as the cells.expand under pressure.
Good to know. Thanks.
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