Lithium Ion Batteries...Yikes

[mikemc53]

Well, we just had an "interesting" experience while on the road with our 37' Class A.


I was driving through Alabama, near Montgomery on I-65, when my wife noticed a smell, like something burning. It took me a few seconds to pick up on it and by the time I noticed it the smoke detectors were going off and the coach had a hazy look inside of it. I pulled onto the shoulder and did a quick run through but saw nothing. We opened the door and my wife saw flames coming from underneath the coach toward the rear. I jumped out and there were flames and molten plastic, along with some wires hanging under the bay near my house battery compartment. The grass along the shoulder of the freeway was starting to catch and my wife had already called 911. I grabbed a fire extinguisher and opened the bay door. The flames seemed to be at the back of one bay and underneath the coach. I extinguished everything before the fire and police arrived. At first we thought it was something in our house charging system but upon further investigation it was apparent that a small hand held battery booster/jump starter was the culprit. Now I have carried this thing for years and seldom used it. In fact I have never used it on the motor home only on my car or garden tractor. It was not being used and only sitting in the bay next to the bay for my house batteries but it went up in flames. Everyone was OK and the damage seemed to have been contained but another few minutes and who knows what might have happened. My propane bay is just one more up from where the fire started!
Anyway, a lot of mess but no human damage (except to the nerves). This is just to let everyone know that Lithium Ion batteries are extremely dangerous - I had no idea they could spontaneously combust. I'll try and follow up after a complete investigation by the repair facility and the insurance company but, be careful gang.

[ol_Bombero-JC]

RickLight wrote:

lbrjet wrote:
A Chevy Bolt did the same thing about a week ago. Could have easily burned down the house.

My dad's house did burn down, but the cause was a normal car.
Gasoline has a higher energy density than any battery.

Sorry about your dad's loss.

Higher density, etc. -
Gasoline fed fires (by car/s in garages, etc.) are routinely extinguished, most often without extension to an attached house - by urban fire departments with "normal" response times of 5 min or less.

Usually a supply line is laid for back-up, but the 400 gal of water (or more) on a fire apparatus is sufficient for initial knock-down, containment - and often extinguishment.

Put the wet stuff on the red stuff - they go "out"!

:W

[RickLight]

lbrjet wrote:
A Chevy Bolt did the same thing about a week ago. Could have easily burned down the house.

My dad's house did burn down, but the cause was a normal car.
Gasoline has a higher energy density than any battery.

[ol_Bombero-JC]

2oldman wrote:
I'd be looking this thing up and see if others have had the same experience.

The dive boat off the Santa Barbara (CA) coast - multiple fatalities caused by fire originating in (small) lithium Ion batt(s)for various
camera equipment, etc. Probably started in one and spread to others. Guests sleeping below deck were unable to escape.

The Chevy Bolt - some folks have purchased lith Ion batts from wrecked electric cars to use in golf carts. One member on SKPs forums had what was suspected to be a short in the golf cart batt - parked under the overhang of his 5th wheel. (BTW he's an electrical engr).

He rated the fire as an "explosion" (at 2:30 AM while sleeping)- which was so intense the smoke detectors didn't have time to alarm....and he had only seconds for himself, wife & dog to escape. Fifth wheel (& of course the golf cart) completely destroyed.

All batteries deserve respect - but Lithium Ion Batteries deserve
very special "mega" respect!

A Fire Dept in a suburb of Houston even called Tesla for advice on how to extinguish a car fire which simply would not go out despite repeated efforts by use of various extinguishing agents - and thousands of gallons of water over a period of 4 hours.
The crash (& fatality of both occupants) was supposedly caused by use of the "driverless" feature being improperly utilized. (Google it).

😞

.

[lbrjet]

A Chevy Bolt did the same thing about a week ago. Could have easily burned down the house.

[pianotuna]

Just another reason to be careful. I'm glad you are ok. I'll be interested in the follow up.

[Grit_dog]

Wow, glad you’re ok and your rig is ...mostly ok.
Please share the specifics on your jump pack and if there is any determination of the cause. Scary stuff.
Like a lot of folks I have a couple of those LiFe PO4 jump packs kicking around.
And I can guarantee both would cause some serious collateral damage right now if that happened.
Heck,one of them is in my snowmobile backpack hanging upstairs in a closet in the house.
One doesn’t really know the propensity for this to occur. Extremely low % I’m certain, but many Years ago, I believe we were part of that low %. There was no “investigation”
By the insurance company, but my dads pickup, a plain ole 80s Chevy, spontaneously combusted middle of the night, burning down 3 vehicles and our attached garage.
Neighbors saw it first and said fire under the hood of the truck.
Only plausible explanation. Only source of ignition I can figure.

[2oldman]

I'd be looking this thing up and see if others have had the same experience.

[FWC]

Do you know the brand/model of the jump pack that caught fire?

The lithium polymer batteries used in these have extremely high energy densities and require respect. However, with careful engineering these can be safe. There are literally billions of these in cell phones, laptops etc, and while fires are not unheard off, they are uncommon.

I do worry about the flood of very cheap and likely poorly engineered jump packs, phone power banks, and camping battery packs that are selling like hotcakes. I trust Apple, Dell and the like to engineer their products for safety, but who knows about the uber cheap box of battery type devices.

[StirCrazy]

mikemc53 wrote:

Anyway, a lot of mess but no human damage (except to the nerves). This is just to let everyone know that Lithium Ion batteries are extremely dangerous - I had no idea they could spontaneously combust. I'll try and follow up after a complete investigation by the repair facility and the insurance company but, be careful gang.

good thing no one got hurth and you managed to put it out. This is why the prefered chemistry for us is LiFePo4, it isnt suseptable to thermal runaway like nickle metal hydride or other chemistries.

Steve

[naturist]

Wow. Good to hear you were able to contain the damage and no one was hurt. Some of those charger/booster boxes use AGM (a lead/acid battery) instead of lithium batteries. I have two with AGMs. It should be noted that all of them, regardless of battery type, can cause a fire under the right circumstances.

If you store them in with other tools that can bounce around on the road and cause a short, a fire is almost certain. Not saying that’s what happened here, just that that is a hazard to be aware of.

Thank you, @mikemc35, for posting and reminding us all to be careful both with lithium batteries and all electrical devices, and especially for reminding us all to have a fire extinguisher in our rigs.

[Lwiddis]

Glad you and family are ok. All batteries deserve respect.

[noteven]

Thanks for posting - glad you were able to extinguish the fire.

Oh by the way - all DC batteries store an amount of electrical potential that can’t wait to find it’s way to “ground” ...

[CA_Traveler]

Gdetrailer, Good post.

New technology sometimes has it's negatives. Remember the major airlines with smoking batteries?

[Gdetrailer]

Glad you are OK.

Yes, Lithium batteries can pack a punch and do deserve some consideration and caution. Granted there are some Lithium versions "safer" than others but the fact remains that for the size and weight, they hold a considerable amount of charge energy even when stored.

Folks have gotten used to these batteries and don't pay much respect to the stored energy in them..

Good chance your device malfunctioned (shorted) while being stored or the other possibility is it may have had one of the bad batches of Lithium batteries which had impurities which over time would short out the cells which were recalled.