Lithium-ion battery use needs safety steps beyond EV's

The ever-wider use of powerful lithium-ion batteries to run electric vehicles and other equipment marks an important advance. But as we learn more and more, this progress carries potential hazards, as have most technological strides.

The nation has just begun to wrestle with the particularly stubborn and poisonous fires these batteries can spawn.

These powerful charged devices need two types of precautionary approach. One is preventive — safe manufacture, maintenance and storage to minimize the threat of overheating. The other is ensuring emergency responders can safely and efficiently battle these nasty blazes when they occur.

Both safety routes must be developed and followed going forward.

LOCAL TRAGEDIES

The firefighting part of the challenge hit home late on the night of Feb. 24 in the coastal North Fork community of East Marion after a 2020 Ford Explorer collided head-on with a 2023 electric Tesla. Each car carried two people; all were killed. A fire erupted in the high-voltage Tesla battery that took firefighters two hours and extra equipment to put out. It belched a big volume of acrid gray smoke, driven by winds whipping off Long Island Sound.

Fire professionals are becoming familiar with the fight to control such a blaze. This lithium ion technology makes the heat and smoke unusually intense.

The right breathing apparatus for responders is a must. An extra challenge is getting the right kind of spray nozzle below a low-lying electric car to douse and cool down the battery. Police, too, felt sickened by the fumes in East Marion.

The National Transportation Safety Board warned last October after investigating such crashes and fires that they also pose the risk of electric shock to responders. Smaller battery fires, once they start, can release toxic and explosive gases, and they can even be sparked by saltwater flooding.

As Newsday reported last week, the state has 136,587 electric cars, more than triple the number in 2019, according to a private research firm. Electric vehicle sales are projected to have grown 65% nationwide in 2022 over 2021.

In New York City, the widespread commercial use of e-bikes has brought a rash of lithium-ion fires — some 216 reported last year.

Two weeks ago, a fire from the battery of an e-bike exploded into a spectacular five-alarm conflagration that destroyed a Bronx supermarket. “There is nothing left — and it is all because of this one single bike,” FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh said from the scene.

The problem goes beyond vehicles. Last year, a stubborn blaze erupted in a battery storage facility in northern California. Investigators called it “an extensive cascading thermal runaway event, initiated by an internal cell failure within one battery cell.”

“Thermal runaway” — the culprit in most such cases — starts when heat generated within a battery exceeds the amount of heat that will dissipate into its surroundings. Other cells close by heat up and ignite in a domino effect.

Word of these incidents rolls in from all over. A lithium-ion battery fire last month prompted a cross-country United Airlines flight to return to San Diego International Airport right after takeoff. A customer’s battery pack for some device had erupted. The crew used a special so-called fire bag to keep flames from spreading, an example of the kind of special measures required.

REVERSING THE TREND

How will this worrisome trend be reversed? Piecemeal, and on multiple fronts, based on evidence so far. Varied steps have been taken and recommended as more solutions are considered.

On the public-awareness front, Nassau County has been spreading word for nearly a year on what to look out for. The county fire marshal’s office has issued announcements on this front, reminding everyone that the batteries that enable us to recharge everything from phones to power tools should be stored safely — away from sunlight and heat, for example, and disposed of properly when the time comes.

On the professional front, Suffolk’s fire academy and firehouses have presented lectures and training for responders. In New York City, the Uniformed Firefighters Association’s president, Andrew Ansbro, called for steps to decontaminate all firefighting gear exposed at battery fires as a health precaution.

On the product safety front, Rep. Ritchie Torres of the Bronx has introduced legislation aimed at setting the right product-safety standards. "The problems are not the batteries per se. The problem arises when these lithium-ion batteries are poorly designed, poorly manufactured, and poorly handled," Torres said.

On the proper-usage front, the New York City Council voted to ban the sale of “second-use” or reconfigured lithium-ion batteries for e-bikes. Long Island communities should consider whether that needs to be done here, too.

This web of public-safety challenges must be met on the local, state and federal levels — and within the industries that design and manufacture the devices and the battery packs that power them.

We are not returning to old technology, so safety solutions must swiftly advance, everywhere all at once. That’s the only way toward the twin goals of preventing and suppressing these blazes.