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https://www.bestmag.co.uk/content/residential-lithium-ionbattery-ess-causes-late-night-blaze-home


Residential lithium-ion battery ESS causes late night blaze at home
Thu, 02/17/2022 - 16:52 -- Paul Crompton

A residential lithium-ion battery is believed to have caused AUS$200,000 ($144,000) of damage when it triggered a late-night fire at a home in Adelaide, Australia.

The blaze began in a solar panel-powered energy storage system located in the garage of the property, according to reports by Australian news outlet ABC News.

Investigators are looking at the reasons behind how the battery caught alight, including if a fault in the product was to blame.

Metropolitan Fire Service’s northern operations commander Stuart Dawes said the fire required "copious amounts of water" to bring under control.

Dawes was quoted by ABC as saying: "Lithium-ion storage systems are becoming more of an emerging hazard to fire services around the nation.

"Fire services are developing policy and procedure to deal with the rise in these types of incidents.

"These batteries, in general, if they become pierced or exposed to radiant heat or fire, a thermal runaway process may commence whereby the cells of the battery become heated and may cause fire.

"This can lead to an explosive or volatile toxic situation which may result in a fire in a home, as it has in this case."

Image: Graham Burke's home in Burton was badly damaged in a fire that started in his solar panel batteries. (ABC News: Candice Prosser)