Posted on 09/24/2026 2:58:52 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Hundreds of La Verne residents under evacuation orders Thursday may be out of their homes for several more days as crews work to stabilize two lithium-ion battery storage systems damaged in a fire earlier this week that remain dangerously hot.
Barricades to allow emergency vehicle access have been placed around parts of the evacuation zone, which spans Moreno Avenue to the west, Foothill Boulevard to the north, B Street to the east, and Paseo Drive and Kendrick Drive to the south.
Firefighters said Thursday that they are making significant progress on the incident, but there is still the potential for toxic smoke if the batteries ignite again. As a result, crews continue focusing on lowering temperatures inside the two large storage systems. Crews are spraying about 1,800 gallons of water per minute on the units in an effort to keep the damaged lithium-ion batteries from reigniting.
The batteries were damaged during Tuesday’s fire, which ignited around 11:40 a.m. following a small explosion at the Metropolitan Water District facility off Wheeler Avenue.
A temperature spike at a second storage unit on Wednesday sparked new concerns about the possibility of an explosion.
Officials hope soaking the storage units with water will allow the remaining battery energy to burn off and eventually make the systems safe enough to be dismantled.
(Excerpt) Read more at ktla.com ...
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Huge commercial lithium battery storage is made up of thousands or even millions of AA sizes batteries. So many that it is a statistical certainty that some will catch fire.
What do Greta and Al Gore and the others think about the plumes of toxic pollution ruining the air we breathe?
Probably a few seconds of that pollution makes up for our cars with catalytic converters and our reduced capacity room air conditioners.
The toxic smoke is no joke.
Lithium-Ion Battery Fire Smoke Exposure: Recognition, Decon, and Treatment (First Responder Guide)
Lithium Ion battery fires generate hydrogen fluoride. When it comes in contact with water, it is converted into hydroflouric acid which causes hydrofluoric acid burns.
Since it (hydrofluoric acid) can penetrate tissue, poisoning can occur readily through exposure of skin or eyes, inhalation, or ingestion. Symptoms of exposure to hydrofluoric acid may not be immediately evident, and this can provide false reassurance to victims, causing them to delay medical treatment.
Despite its irritating vapor, HF may reach dangerous levels without an obvious odor. It interferes with nerve function, meaning that burns may not initially be painful.
Accidental exposures can go unnoticed, delaying treatment and increasing the extent and seriousness of the injury. Symptoms of HF exposure include irritation of the eyes, skin, nose, and throat, eye and skin burns, rhinitis, bronchitis, pulmonary edema (fluid buildup in the lungs), and bone damage due to HF strongly interacting with calcium in bones.
In a concentrated form, HF can cause severe tissue destruction through lesions and mucous membrane damage, but dilute HF is still dangerous because of its high lipid affinity, leading to cellular death of nerves, blood vessels, tendons, bones, and other tissues. Cases of intestinal damage from contact with hydrofluoric acid requiring surgical intervention are rare but known in medical literature.
Try this one: Lithium-Ion Battery Fire Smoke Exposure: Recognition, Decon, and Treatment (First Responder Guide)
Oh neighbors put a big battery system on the wall of their house! Chinese knock-off of Tesla PowerWall!
I know KTLA is California but there are a lot of LA Vernes around the country.
No mention of California I could find.
There is a La Verne 30 miles from me in TN
“A lithium-ion battery fire is extremely toxic and dangerous, often presenting a greater health hazard than the flames or heat themselves.Toxic Gases ReleasedWhen a battery enters thermal runaway (an uncontrolled, self-heating state where cells fail sequentially), it vents a dense cloud of poisonous and corrosive chemicals”
It should be illegal for more than a pound of lithium to be in one place.
It’s in the KEYWORDS under the article. Maybe it wasn’t when you first saw the post.
Thanks.
I forget those are there.
All reputable battery companies install, what's known as a protection circuit, into their LI-ion batteries.
LI-ion batteries are sensitive to over-charging, over-discharging and high current draw.
The protection circuit monitors battery voltage to make sure the charging rate isn't too high, that the battery voltage isn't too high/low and that the discharge rate is within parameters.
The Chi-com battery manufacturers usually omit this protection circuit as a cost-saving measure so they can undercut their reputable competitors on price.
To protect yourself and your neighbor, you might want to pass along this information.
Once a LI-ion battery fire starts, it produces toxic gases (hydroflouric acid) and it's extremely difficult to put out.
This is why it's illegal to put lithium batteries into checked luggage on an airliner.
In High School, we would make hydrofluoric acid in Chemistry class, and use Adhesive vinyl to make designs etched on the glass. We had a chemical fume hood for safety. We had a cool Chemistry teacher. She was hot, too.
And the city is....La Verne? I assume the state is west of the Mississippi.
If it’s Kalifornia, Gavin is probably probably manning the fire hose....oh, wait there’s that no water in the hydrants thing.
Do AI data centers burn like this? Just curious.
1800 GPM for hours on end is a crap load of water! That would tax a good size city’s water supply system if it was being fed from a hydrant. Be interesting to know if that’s the case here or whether the FD might be drafting water from some other source such as a pond or river. In either case it’s a damn poor waste of good water.
Prayers up ... FReeper pollywog please check in!! 🙏🏻
In the early days of the semiconductor industry HF burns were not uncommon. The acid doesn’t immediately burn like sulfuric, hydrochloric or nitric acid but stealthily goes into the skin and attacks the bone marrow.
The big storage units have gone over the prismatic cells, the biggest are around 13x8x3 inches. Tesla has begun using prismatic batteries in some cars and its Megabuck storage unit.
Yes! I saw this and wondered if it was La Vergne, TN - and if it would affect the state DNR dog-training site on Percy Priest Reservoir. Judge a hunting test there pretty regularly with Music City HRC.
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