The Grande Prairie Fire Department is seeing an up-tick in lithium battery fires.
Local Fire Marshall Chris Renyk says over the years cigarette related fires typically tops the municipality in fire causes, but he says that in recent years that lithium battery fires are on the rise. Renyk says these batteries are found in a number of every day items.
“Last year we had an up tick in the amount of battery fires, that were represented with a lot of things like hand-held appliances, everything from your regular Dyson vacuum to laptops and remote control cars,” he said.
Renyk mentioned that these type of fires can be caused when a battery is damaged or is being overcharged. Renyk says that the remote control car hobby is quite popular in the city, which could lead to more lithium battery related fires.
“In Grande Prairie it’s a big hobby, and those type of battery’s incur a whole heck of a lot of damage, what happens there is if you have thermal runaway from a damaged battery, or over charging, or using products that aren’t necessarily CSA.”
With some families expecting to possibly receive these items for Christmas, it’s never a bad idea to treat the battery’s properly to help protect yourself from a potential fire.
If you plan on throwing out an item that may contain the battery, to make sure you dispose of it properly.
