Lithium battery tips to keep from catching fire

Chances are most people wouldn’t think twice about lithium batteries being a danger when charging them. Lethbridge Fire and Emergency Services is warning about two fires connected with lithium batteries that were being charged and caught fire. Adam Saturley, a Fire Prevention Officer with the city has some tips on how to best protect yourself from getting burned.

“When you’re charging anything that has a lithium ion or a lithium polymer battery, you want to put it on a surface that is non-combustible or that doesn’t heat up very easily. Don’t leave it on a bed or on a couch. Anything like that when heated it could actually catch fire pretty easy. If you find that you do experience a fire in it try to unplug the source of the power immediately. Just understand that that battery is not neccesarily stable right now. One of the things you might see coming from it is smoke and that smoke will actually be white in colour. That smoke is quite toxic.”

Saturley says to unplug the power and call 911 if this happens. He says there have been deaths in Vancouver attributed to lithium batteries catching fire.